


Let's Fix This

by PlatformNineAndThreeQuarters



Series: Reincarnation Roulette [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), Bamf Uchiha Naomi, Big Brother Uchiha Shisui, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Gen, Hokage Uchiha Itachi, M/M, No Uchiha Massacre, POV Multiple, Reincarnation, Shisui as Sensei
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-08-22 01:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 47
Words: 24,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16588421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlatformNineAndThreeQuarters/pseuds/PlatformNineAndThreeQuarters
Summary: Sometimes the simplest of solutions are the most effective.- An effort to fix the Shinobi world by Uchiha Naomi





	1. First Meeting

Itachi didn’t know what to expect when Shisui asked him to check-up on his five year old sister when he left for his mission. He knew Shisui was an orphan as of a year ago. Had he really left his little sister alone for a month? He wondered if he would ever become this negligent with Sasuke. He hoped not.

He knocked on the door of Shisui’s house twice. Receiving no answer he ventured into the backyard. There he saw a tiny girl practicing katas against a wooden post. Itachi had seen many people practice katas before, but never like her. Her movements were sharp and precise, and there was force and determination in each strike that did nothing to diminish the fluidity and grace. But it was her expression that struck him the most. The stubborn set of jaw and the fire in the eyes were not something he’d expect from a five year old.

“Who’re you?” She finally noticed him. She looked quite a bit like Shisui, only with half the height, longer hair and a scowl on the face.

He bowed to her and introduced himself. “I am Uchiha Itachi, Naomi-san. Shisui asked me to take care of you while he was away.”

Her scowl deepened. “You’re a kid yourself. How are you supposed to take care of me?”

He wasn’t considered a kid anymore. He was the heir of Uchiha clan. The prodigy who is supposed to bring glory to the clan and fulfil the impossible expectations of the elders and his father. He did not have a heart to tell her that though.

“I am going to graduate from the academy soon.” That would make him a Ninja, a legal adult, at seven years of age.

“They teach you how to take care of kids at the academy?” She raised an eyebrow.

“I have experience taking care of my younger brother.”

“Do I look like a one year old child to you, Itachi-Chan?”

He closed his mouth before he could dig himself further into the hole. Changing the subject would be best. “Would you like to spar with me, Naomi-san?”

She narrowed her eyes, indicating she had seen through his ploy, but nodded jerkily. They briefly put up the seal of friendly spar and launched at each other. What followed was exhilarating. Each of his strike was met meet equal speed and force. It seemed they could almost read each other’s minds as they sparred in way that would almost seem like dancing to an outsider. She was able to match him perfectly. For the first time in his life, Itachi was having fun while sparring, with a grin on his face as big as Naomi’s. But all good things come to an end. Both of them leapt back, taking note of the fatigue in their muscles. They stared at each other looking into matching newly awakened Sharingan


	2. As Blunt as a Hammer

"So, what did you do with Naomi these last weeks?" Shisui asked popping down next to him.

"We sparred. She's good." Itachi decided to tell him about their Sharingan awakenings only when they were away from prying ears of the clan. He didn't want Naomi to be treated like another prodigy to be sent for early graduation.

"Yeah. She is too hard on herself while training, though." her brother said.

"What goal is she working towards?"

Shisui held a long suffering sigh. " She wants to conquer Kumo."

Itachi tried to digest that. "Why?" He asked after a minute of silence.

"Well, you know tou-chan died of heart block, right? And Kamiwari now kuni is known for medicines to treat that. We couldn't get those because of the war. Now she's angry that tou-chan could be alive and he isn't. She's trying to lash out." He sighed. "She used to be such a happy kid before that, you know."

The next day Itachi sought out Naomi while she was training.

"Shisui told me you wish to conquer Kumo." He said.

She turned sharply towards him, halting her kata. "You think I can't do it?"

"You could, but why do you want to? There would be long war and lots of deaths because of it."

"There's always war."

"There doesn't have to be." he said softly.

"What do you mean?" She looked confused.

Itachi had never revealed his dream to anyone, but felt it was the right thing to do at the moment. "I wish to stop all wars. That is my dream, to become Hokage and bring peace to the Elemental Nations."

He waited for her to scoff and ridicule his dream. She studied him for a long time as if this was the first time she was truly seeing him.

"You have to be good at diplomacy and making friends to do that. I can easily say that you are crap at it." she proclaimed.

This was not the reaction Itachi had expected. He frowned at her.

"From what I've seen, you are not very good at it either." he shot back childishly.

"Oh! I'm plenty good at making friends. I just find you annoying."

Itachi took a deep breath and refrained from sticking his tongue out at her. "Why do you find me annoying."

"Because you look down on me."

"I don't.."

"You do. You're only a year older than me and you just pop up claiming to take care of me, even when nii-san just told you to check up on me. It's like you think everyone else is inferior to you or something. It's not your fault really, you've been told all your life how brilliant you you are, that you are a prodigy. Well, guess what, no matter how brilliant you are there would always be someone who is better than you at something. You're not some kami-chosen messiah who has come to give salvation to us lesser beings. You're just a kid."

Itachi stood stunned followed her tirade. He mentally recalled his behavior with his classmates and Naomi, and winced.

"You're right. I've been acting condenscendingly towards you. I don't have any excuse. Please forgive me." He bowed at ninety degrees, showing his shame.

"I don't really like these formalities, so... Just stand up, allright?" Naomi replied, sounding flustered. "And don't worry about learning diplomacy for after you make Hokage. You can make me your chief diplomat, I'll take care of everything."

Itachi straightened up. "I don't know. I wouldn't want to start the fourth shinobi war."

Naomi snorted. " So, you do have a sense of humor, somewhere deep, deep, deep down. Good to know. As your friend, I have the responsibility of preventing it from dieing a premature death."

Itachi didn't know when during their conversation he had made friends with Naomi. He didn't mind though.


	3. The Hyuuga Incident

Itachi heard Naomi's voice as he went down the stairs from his room.

"... saw him sneaking away from the Hyuuga compound with a sack over his shoulder. He looked like a thief and the Uchiha are police, right? So, I tried to stop him, I didn't know he was a Ninja. He dropped the sack and defended against me. He was really fast, and then my sharingan activated. I could see him clearly and the muscles around his nose were twitching. I gathered he must have a sensitive nose so I blew up the chilly powder pack I had bought just before. He was twitching on the ground till the ANBU arrived to take him." She giggled.

Itachi entered the room to find father and mother listening intently to Naomi and Sasuke on mother's lap.

"Then I opened up the bag, and there was a cute little girl inside. She was terrified but she was like really really cute with that hime cut hairstyle... "

Father cleared his throat.

"Right. So, I was comforting her, when Hiashi-sama arrived, byakugan blazing. I explained to him what happened. He then thanked me and said that the Hyuuga clan owed me a favor. He looked really pained though saying that, as though the stick up his arse was actually hurting him."

"Arse." Sasuke chimed up. "Arse."

Naomi gained a pained expression. " I swear Fugaku-sama, he does this on purpose to get me in trouble."

Father held a long suffering sigh. "Naomi, just... Just go." He swallowed. "Good work."

Itachi tried not to think about how the hypothetical stick in his father's ass must be hurting him right now, as he complimented Naomi. Something must have shown on his expression, as Naomi winked at him and grinned as she passed. "Bye, Itachi-chan."

He schooled his expression and asked his father, "Someone tried to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress?"

"Hn. The Kumo diplomat."

Itachi couldn't contain his snort at Naomi beating down a Kumo Ninja, her self proclaimed enemy since she was four.

His parents looked at him with scandalized expressions. "You're spending way too much time with her." His father declared.


	4. Teasing

Itachi was at loss at what to do to dissuade his clan members from their foolish plans of coup. But he was only thirteen, despite being ANBU and clan heir, he wouldn't be able to change their minds. His less than stellar social skills didn't help either. Shisui was his only hope.

"Almost all of them are on board the plan. Mentioning anything would lead to suspicion." And that hope was dashed as well.

Something must have shown on his face as Shisui put his hand on Itachi's shoulder. "Don't worry, Itachi. We'll think of something."

He was about reply when a familiar figure emerged from the edge of clearing. " Oi, Itachi-chan, the brat was looking for you. Hi, nii-chan."

"Nii-san." Itachi braced himself as Sasuke jumped off Naomi's back and hug/tackled him. His lips quirked in amusement. Despite mellowing out towards Sasuke over the years, Naomi still called him brat. This was the first time Sasuke didn't protest the nickname.

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked, bouncing on his feet.

"We were just discussing which of us is stronger." Shisui contributed.

"What's their to discuss? Of course Itachi nii-san is stronger." said Sasuke, ever faithful to his brother.

"What do you mean by 'of course' brat? Are you eager to get tickled again?" Naomi wiggled her fingers threateningly.

Sasuke, apparently terrified of the tickle monster, gasped and ran away.

"Stop terrorizing him, imouto." Shisui said, ruffling Naomi's hair and took off after Sasuke. Naomi huffed and turned to Itachi.

"So, what were you talking about ?"

"Classified." was the simple reply.

"So, now that both nii-chan and you are ANBU, you're going to use that excuse for everything, aren't you ?"

"Well, it's a convinient excuse, genin-chan." Itachi couldn't help but tease. Not that he doubted Naomi's skill. Despite being known as the clan's prodigy, he could say Naomi was smarter than him. Her combat skills while not comparable to him or Shisui were more than necessary for a chunnin. She had failed the chunnin exams on purpose twice now with such finesse that an entire village of ninjas didn't suspect anything. But what impressed Itachi the most was her way of thinking. He was able to learn anything on his first try, but Naomi was able to discover new things without putting much effort.

"Looks like you've got a big head, Itachi-chan. You're in a need of thorough ass kicking." Naomi replied, her eyes narrowing.

"You can certainly try, genin-chan." Itachi watched as Naomi's eyes reduce to slits. She very much resembled the cat summons of the clan at that moment. Despite having confidence in his skills, Itachi felt a shiver run down his spine.

He was saved by Sasuke's shout of," Nii-san, come quickly."

Naomi scowled as he quietly started towards the clan compound. "You should stop coddling him, you know. He is going to grow up spoilt and pampered."

Itachi feeling a dare devil for some reason, decided to try his luck a little further and asked, "Like you?" and shunshined away before she could reply.

"You're dead, Itachi." He heard Naomi's enraged shout from the clearing.


	5. Coup Mitigation

Itachi wanted to bang his head against the wall. He had just informed the clan about the increased village security to deter them from launching their rebellion. Instead of withdrawing, they were planning more aggressive maneuvers.

"Itachi-kun, you must get us those new security plans quickly. You are an ANBU, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to get your hands on them." One of the elders, Uchiha Kenji, demanded.

"Were you dropped on your head as child, Kenji-san or this mental retardation is a result of later life choices?" Itachi almost groaned aloud at hearing Naomi's voice, but years of conditioning prevented him from from doing so.

All eyes turned towards the shadowy corner housing twelve year old Naomi Uchiha. Itachi's father was the first to express his disproval. "You are not supposed to be here, Naomi. This meeting is for chunnin and above members of the clan."

"Maybe chunnin should learn to be more discreet then. Even a lowly genin like me was able to deduce the plot of coup from their gossip." she replied. " And a chunnin should know that village security has been increased in response to the whispers of the same coup and in that case Itachi wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the plans. "

There was silence following the proclamation." What do you mean by whispers of the coup? "

" You haven't heard? There rumors all over the village about the Uchiha usurping the village. Danzo's work if I had to guess. He was behind the ones about the Uzumaki kid."

Uchiha Kenji was able to gather his wits by then." This is the reason the coup is necessary. The village council, even the Hokage are all prejudiced against us due to Tobirama's teachings. We have to grab the power for us, ourselves."

"Wow, you're seriously dumb aren't you?" Naomi spoke, as usual, without filter. " You don't realize you're doing all their work for them. I agree they are prejudiced against the Uchiha, but they can't do anything about it since we are a founding clan, the only one since the Senju are all but gone. But you are giving them a reason to eliminate us, on a silver platter. They can easily do that. They have twenty times the Ninja as compared to the clan. No matter how much you talk about the superiority of Sharingan, even you know we can't realistically win. Is that the reason for this coup? To commit mass suicide as traitors? "

" What do you suggest them, Naomi? We should continue to tolerate oppression and discrimination from the the very village we founded? " Father asked.

" Organizing a coup isn't the only way to fight against that. We need allies in the village. Hiashi-sama told me that the Hyuuga clan owed me a favor for saving their heiress from abduction. We can easily use that to negotiate an alliance with them. The Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi can be brought in through trade agreements, so can the Aburame. Having allies in the clan council could help you to counter the polices of Hokage council and to present grieviences."

If the Uchiha were able to be struck dumb, that would be the expression of every Uchiha in the Naka shrine. The solution presented by Naomi was so simple, yet no one in the clan had thought of it. The Uchiha had always been isolationist and the sentiment was reinforced by segregating them in the police force and later the clan compound. This isolation is what would have led the Uchiha to their doom... If not for Naomi.

Not everyone was satisfied, though. Some of the more arrogant and bloodthirsty members of the clan still wanted the village to pay. But having an alternate solution at hand, father was able to end the coup plans. Itachi would finally be able to give good news to the Hokage.


	6. Proposal

Itachi dived towards the left to avoid the katana swipe aiming for his neck, dispelled the triple layered genjutsu trying to snare him, kicked his opponent in the stomach and pined her against the ground, with a kunai at her neck.

Big, wide eyes with three tomoe Sharingan locked on to his. Her face was flushed from exhaustion, beads of sweat clinging to her forehead. She had sharp cheekbones, having lost most of the baby fat in last few years. Her full lips were set in a pout due to her loss. She was breathtakingly beautiful.

"Marry me?" He blurted out before he could stop himself. He forced himself to not retract his words now that they were spoken. He had realised some time ago that he was in love with Naomi, possibly form the day he met her. He was scared to act on it, though. Naomi was his best friend, despite their vastly different personalities. He did not want to estrange her if she didn't return his feelings. But now the cat was out of the bag.

"What?" Naomi's previous frustration was replaced by surprise, a faint blush dusting her cheeks.

Itachi lost his nerve and backtracked. "My father is pushing me to find a bride and the fan girls are getting quite creative." He said with a straight face. It wasn't technically a lie.

Her expression turned to incrediuality. "You want to marry me because your fangirls are getting creative?" He didn't need to see her Sharingan to know that he was entering dangerous territory.

"Also because I cannot imagine spending my life with anyone but you." he said sincerely. It must have been the right thing to say as she deactivated her Sharingan. She studied him for quite some time before she replying. "I guess I could marry you, on one condition."

"What would that be?" He asked, trying and failing to stop his hopes from rising. She flipped him on his back and pressed a Kunai to his jugular. "You'll have to admit defeat to the great Naomi-sama."

"I admit defeat to the great Naomi-sama." He easily said, unable and suppress the grin that crept up his face.

She huffed, removing the kunai from his neck. "You're no fun." she proclaimed, with a smile in her voice.

Now he just had to convince Shisui to not kill him.


	7. Awakening

Grace felt the explosion push her back. She mentally took account of the burns she received and concluded she wouldn't survive this. To her surprise she didn't feel any despair. She was content with her life. The last few years in med school and as a surgical resident after that had been the best years of her life. She was saving lives and she was good at it. Her current predicament could also be attributed to her saving people thing. She has refused to remove pressure from the bleeding abdominal wound of the patient despite an unknown explosive inside his abdominal cavity. She didn't have any regrets, except maybe she'd miss terrorizing her interns. With that thought Dr. Grace Murphy died at the age of 28.

Naomi woke up with a gasp and bleeding eyes, dimly aware of her surroundings. She took in slow deep breaths to avoid hyperventilation. She was Uchiha Naomi, 17 year old chunnin of Konoha. She was in the forests of Kamiwari no kuni with Jiraiya on a training trip. She was safe.

It took her several minutes for her to calm down and another few to make a sense of what happened. She had died and was reborn into a world she previously considered fictional. She has somehow regained the memories of her previous life on her seventeenth birthday. She heard a rustle in the trees.

"Back from peeping, ero-sensei?" She called out.

"It's research, brat." came the automatic reply. " And what are you doing up so early?"

"Really, sensei? You forgot my birthday? You wouldn't have got me anything then?" She mock pouted.

"Calm down, girlie. I have the perfect birthday gift for you." he said handing me a scroll. She opened it to find a certificate proclaiming her a seal master.

"You're not serious, are you? It has only been a year." She gaped at him.

"I'm completely serious." He answered before scowling. " This is the reason I don't like teaching you genius types. You take all the fun out of it."

"Like the Yondaime wasn't a genius." She shot back.

"Who said I liked teaching him. Damn sensei for saddling me with him and now you. Anyway, it's time to return back to Konoha. I can pay him back by using his crystle ball to peek, I mean research."

Naomi just shook her head.


	8. Shisui Sensei

The chibis managed to pass, Shisui repeated to himself, possibly the hundredth time. He still couldn't believe it. When the Hokage assigned him a genin team, he naturally went to Kakashi-senpai as he held the record of the most number of genin teams failed. What he got from him was a masterpiece of psychological warfare created to fail unsuspecting genin- the bell test. And the Hokage couldn't even fault him for using it as he had himself used it for the sannin.

Meeting his potential genin, he was sure that they would fail the test. But somehow, using the luck of kami, they had actuality managed to pass the second test of teamwork. And now Shisui was the jonin sensei of his brat of a cousin, the kyuubi jinchiruchi and a pink haired civilian girl. He was so screwed.

It was due to these distracting thoughts that he didn't notice anything unusual as he entered his house. Not until he was pinned against the wall with a kunai to his neck.

"Ne, nii-chan, you're getting sloppy in your old age." said sorely missed, familiar voice.

"Hey, I was distracted." Shisui replied. The kunai was removed and he turned around to see the grinning face of his imouto.

" 'You can never be distracted when you're a shinobi, imouto. The distracted shinobi is a dead shinobi.'" she said, trying to mimic his voice.

" Still a brat, I see. How did your training go?"

"It went well, considering how easily I got a drop on you."

Shisui had missed his sister. The bantering, the sparring, good food, a happy Itachi, it felt like all the good things in his life had left with Naomi.

"Atleast Itachi will stop brooding, now that you're back." he commented.

"Brooding?"

"That's all he's been doing since you left - training, missions and brooding. If I'd known he was so hopelessly in love with you, I probably wouldn't have tried to kill him when he asked you to marry him."

" 'Tried' being the key word. And he's not in love with me. He asked me to marry him because he I'm the only female his age that isn't his fangirl."

Shisui couldn't contain his snort in response to that." You know, for such a smart person, you can be really dumb sometimes. He should be training in the HC section of Forest of Death, if you wish to see him. " he offered, casually.

Naomi narrowed her eyes. " I'll do that. You should prepare a training schedule for your team. Congratulations, by the way, Shisui sensei. " She said, while grinning cheerfully, before shunshining away.

Damn. How did she...?

Oh. Sometimes he forgot shinobi gossip worse than fish wives.


	9. Best Friends Share Everything

The HC section was technically restricted access area due to high death count, but being Jiraiya's student had its perks. Soon enough Naomi was moving through the forest, trailing the obvious path of destruction. What surprised her was that there were no signs of fire jutsu or shuriken jutsu, two of Itachi's most favored techniques.

After about an hour of searching, she came across Itachi fighting against a horde of giant spiders, without his shirt, his hair longer than than she'd ever seen and most importantly, blindfolded. She watched in awe as he quickly, gracefully dispatched the spider army with nothing except Tai jutsu. He removed his blindfold when he was done and looked in her direction. She leapt off the tree to land in front of him. He smiled and and greeted her. "Naomi, okaeri."

She smiled back. It was true, coming to him felt like coming home. " Tadaima. You've changed a lot." No, she was definitely not looking at those abs.

"So have you." he said.

"Yes, you could say that." She activated her recently acquired Mangekyou Sharingan. A slight widening of eyes was his only response. As he was looking directly at her eyes, it wasn't difficult to pull him into Tsukiyomi. He didn't resist.

He looked curiously around in the dichromatic worlds of Tsukiyomi. "Genjutsu?" he asked.

Naomi tried not to smile at the irony of him being trapped in a Tsukiyomi. "Hai. It has a time dilation effect. I wanted to talk to you privately."

He nodded and sat down crossing his legs. "How did you get those?" he said, indicating her Mangekyou.

"I saw you and nii-chan die. I felt myself die too. I don't know which of those activated these." She shrugged.

"Time travel?" He questioned, a small frown appearing on his face.

That made her let out a small laugh. "No, what I'm about to tell you, is even more ridiculous than time travel."

"I'll try to keep an open mind."

"I remembered my previous life on my seventeenth birthday." He nodded at her continue. "It wasn't anywhere in the Elemental Nations, but in a different world. People couldn't use chakra and technology was very advanced compared to here." She paused giving him time to think on that. "There was an anime in that world, called 'Naruto'. It told told the story of Uzumaki Naruto and the event leading up to the 4th shinobi war. I think it would be better to show you." With that she plunged the world of Tsukiyomi in memories of her watching Naruto. She had debated with herself is she wanted to tell Itachi about his role in the Uchiha massacre and decides for it. It was a major event and Itachi would spot that much editing in a second.

Hours passed. Itachi didn’t speak at all, viewing with utmost concentration. The world went dichromatic again after they viewed Naruto's inauguration as a the Nanadaime.

Itachi didn't say anything for a long while.

"Things have already changed. Orochimaru might still be with Akatsuki. There might be no Sand-Sound invasion or there might be one backed by the Akatsuki. We have to prepare for all possibilities."

"That's true." She agreed. They could only depend on this knowledge as possibilities not as a determined future. Itachi rubbed his forehead as if relieving a headache.

"Are you allright?" She winced as she said that. Of course he wasn't all right. He just saw himself murdering his own clan, torturing his little brother and getting killed by the said brother. "Uh, never mind. Stupid question."

"I'll be fine." He said with a small smile. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too." She told him, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Why are you training so hard?"

He contemplated for a few seconds before saying, "You can't tell anyone, not even Shisui." She nodded in agreement. He continued. "Sandaime-sama has nominated me as his successor. The daimiyo agreed. It's going to be announced at the chunnin exam finals."

Naomi would forever deny the squeal of delight that escaped her as she hugged him.


	10. C Rank

Naruto decided he liked his team. Even though Sasuke looked down on him, Sakura-chan hit him and sensei was determined to train them to death, they all saw him. They didn't ignore him or see him as the Kyubbi. Even though Shisui sensei clearly hadn't wanted a team, he was never reluctant to answer their questions or correct their mistakes, which Naruto came to realize were many.

When sensei found out that he couldn't read or write properly, he didn't mock him, but offered to teach him.

That was the reason Naruto was sitting in sensei's house, working on kanji, when a pretty dark haired girl entered, looking diaheveled with messed up hair and dirt and grass stains on her clothes.

"What happened to you?" Sensei asked.

"Itachi." she grunted.

"Nope. I don't want to know. Why don't you help Naruto-kun with his kanji? I'll make dinner" Shisui sensei practically fled from the room. Naruto had a feeling that he was thinking of something perverted.

The pretty girl sat down across Naruto and introduced herself. " Hello, Naruto-kun. I'm Naomi, Shisui's amazing little sister."

" I am Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be Hokage, dattebayo." he replied.

"So, I've heard. But you'll have to work hard on your Kanji for that, from what I can see. Hokage do a lot of written work. "

He deflated. " But it's so boring. And I have so much else to do. Sensei is making me re do all my academy lessons, and I have to work on my taijutsu and... "

"Ni-chan told me you can create shadow clones. Why don't you use those to learn all those thing at once? And practicing Kanji will help you when you start learning fuinjutsu. It's legacy of Uzumaki clan, isn't it?" she said, casually. "Think about it. I'll go and change." she got up, ruffling his hair.

Naruto sat there completely still for a long time. He had a lot of thinking to do.

The next day, Naruto was still fidgety. He hadn't found anything about the Uzumaki clan in the library, even using his shadow clones. Then jiji tried to give them another babysitting mission.

"No, old man. This is enough. We are Ninja now. We are training hard. Give us a real mission." He shouted.

There was silence for a while, before jiji chuckled. "Very well Naruto-kun. Team 7 is assigned a C rank mission to escort bridge builder Tazuna to wave. Pick up your client at the North gate in two hours."

He couldn't believe it. An actual C rank. He had honestly expected jiji to start lecturing him.

"Hokage-sama, there are rumors of mercenary occupation in Wave." said a voice from the other side of room. Naruto turned to see an older boy that looked like Sasuke teme with longer hair, working on the mission assignment desk. "Naomi has been cooped up in the village too long, working on seals. Perhaps she can go with them, as extra protection."

Jiji puffed on his pipe. "Naomi-chan can go with them, if she wishes to."

"I'll ask her. Team 7, prepare your packs and meet at the north gate in two hours." Sensei dismissed them.

Turns out Naomi nee-chan actually wished to come with them.

"Naruto-kun, Brat, Pinkie." she greeted them as they approached the gate.

Sasuke teme scowled at her.

"Don't call Sasuke-kun that. And I'm not Pinkie." Sakura-chan shrieked.

Naomi nee-chan looked at her. "Oh, the the kitten has claws. And why should I listen to you. From what I've heard you're not much of a kunoichi."

Naruto opened his mouth to defend Sakura-chan when Sensei appeared with the client. " Team 7, imouto, we're leaving."

With that Naruto took his first steps outside the village.


	11. The Great Naomi-sama

Sasuke didn't understand what his brother saw in Naomi. She was loud, rude, boisterous and incompetent. She still a chunnin at 17, where as nii-san was a jonin at 14. She managed to get a apprenticeship with Jiraiya only because the Sandaime insisted on it. She left that too after just a year. Most importantly, she insisted on calling him 'brat' . He had given up on trying to dissuade her from that when he was 7. She was the exact opposite of kaa-san, and she was going to the matriarch of the Uchiha clan someday.

Now she was accompanying his team on their first C rank 'for extra protection' on nii-san's insistence. She'll more than likely be a hindrance. Even now as they traveled, she tried to teach the dead last about fuinjutsu. As if he would understand anything.

Suddenly she broke out in a run towards a puddle in the middle of the road. Two ninjas with slashed out Kiri headbands appeared from the puddle. Naomi quickly knocked them out, put them in scrolls, summoned a cat and sent the scrolls with the cat back to Konoha. All this happened in a span one minute.

Then, pretending as if nothing had happened, she went back to the dead last's side and continued her lecture. Shisui just rolled his eyes, apparently used to the antics of his crazy sister.

"It'll be a jonin next. Let me take care of it." he said.

"Sure, nii-chan." came her reply. All the while, Tazuna, Naruto and Sakura looked on dumbfounded.

Turns out Shisui was right. They were attacked Zabuza Momochi two days later. Naomi stayed with them and client while Shisui battled him. He was at a disadvantage. He had to consider collateral damage while Zabuza could steamroll with anything. Soon enough Shisui was trapped in Zabuza's water prison.

Naomi decided to throw kunai at Zabuza in response to that, none of which were on course to hit Zabuza. Sasuke closed his eyes. Really, why had nii-san decided to marry a female Naruto?

"Konoha must be losing its standards, if brats like you can become chunnin. Atleast you're pretty." Zabuza mocked.

"You're so going to regret that." Naomi replied, before disappearing in a yellow flash, appearing next to Zabuza knocking him out with a contact seal, and releasing Shisui.

"Was that Hiraishin?" Shisui asked.

"Yeah. Cool, isn't it? I just finished it last week."

Shisui was about to say something in response to that ridiculous statement when a Kiri hunter nin appeared. "I've been tasked to bring Zabuza's body back to Kiri. Please relinquish it to me if you wish to avoid an international incident."

"Do you take us for fools? Kiri is in middle of a civil war. They don't have hunter nins to spare to track down someone like Zabuza who defected years ago." Naomi scoffed.

The fake hunter nin, seeing is ploy defeated, leaped towards Zabuza only to be intercepted by Shisui. What followed was a short battle ending with Shisui's victory.

Sasuke was forced to reevaluate his opinion of Naomi while she summoned a cat to send to Konoha with another two prisoner scrolls.


	12. Kunoichi Bonding

Sakura scrubbed her hands furiously, trying to get the blood off. But it wasn't working. She had blood on her hands. She was a killer. And it was so easy to kill him, the bandit Gato had sent to kidnap Tsunami-san. Her kunai had so easily penetrated his throat and Sakura had watched as he choked to death.

"Sakura." She heard. Great. Now Sasuke's future sister in law was here to make fun of her.

"I know what you're here to say. That I'm a pathetic kunoichi to let killing a bandit affect me so much. I know that. You can go now." Sakura told her, trying desperately not to cry.

She stood there silently for a while but didn't leave.

"I wasn't here to say that, Sakura." she finally said, sitting next to her. "If I said that I'll be the biggest hipocrite in the world. I hate killing. Why do you think I captured our enemies on our way here? But you have the option of not killing only when you are strong."

Sakura wilted at that. "I'm not strong. Not like you or the boys..."

"That's only because you're keeping yourself weak, Sakura. Tell me, why are you on a diet?"

"I'll get fat if I don't diet." She answered.

"Do I look fat to you?"

Sakura stared at Naomi's perfect figure. "No. That means you're on a diet, too."

Naomi snorted at that. " I have never been on a diet, for even a day. I'm a glutton of the highest order. I eat more than triple you eat, everyday."

"But you're not fat." She protested.

" That's because I train my ass off. I saw you earlier in the clearing, you were only putting the minimal effort in your training, while ogling at Sasuke."

Sakura blushed in embarrassment. " I can't train hard with them. I'll get sweaty and dirty, then Sasuke-kun would... "

Naomi interrupted her. " I can't talk about all boys, but if Sasuke is anything like Itachi, he'll love to see you all hot and sweaty."

Sakura's blush rivaled her dress at that moment.

" Oi, get your mind out of the gutter, Pinkie. He hasn't even kissed me yet."

She gasped at that. " What? But aren't you engaged? "

" We are. For more than a year now. What can I say, he's kind of a dork." Naomi replied, grinning.

She couldn't help but giggle at Uchiha Itachi being called a dork.

" Anyway, physical training isn't the only way to get strong. You've got near perfect chakra control. You can train in genjutsu or iryo nin jutsu. "

" Are you an iryo nin? You were helping the villagers earlier...Could you train me? "

" That was civilian medicine I learned before I became a Ninja. I could get started with Anatomy now if you want, the basics are all the same. " Naomi replied.

" Please, sensei. " Sakura stood up and bowed, her eyes hard with determination.


	13. Make Kakashi Train Again

Kakashi ventured to the meeting place where his kohai (possibly future Hokage) had requested him to be. He was only an hour late. He wouldn't admit to anyone but he was a little scared of Itachi.

"Kakashi-senpai." he was greeted by his kohai who already there, as expected.

"Yo. Looking for early recruits for your Hokage gaurd platoon?" He guessed.

Itachi blinked. "No. This is about your Sharingan."

Oh. "You clan still wants it back?"

" Of course, they do. I am not here on their behalf, though. I have been reading old missions reports and I came across one of yours, about a mission in Kiri to rescue your teammate." Kakashi stiffened at that. Itachi continued." I don't wish to open old wounds but I have suspicions that you awakened the next stage of Sharingan then, the Mangekyou Sharingan. It is activated due to guilt and grief of killing someone you care about."

"Why are you telling me this?" Kakashi asked, stiffly.

Itachi visibly you hesitated. " I have come across information about a group of S rank missing nin with the goal to capture and kill jinchiruchi."

Naruto. Kakashi thought.

"Obito-san's branch of the clan has been known to manifest Kamui. It is a technique which can manipulate space. Normally on activating a Mangenkyo, the user is automatically aware of how to use it. You still have to train it to get better results. As of right now your Chakra reserve wouldn't sustain the Mangenkyo Sharingan for more than a minute."

Itachi started walking away, before saying, "I wouldn't even attempt to understand your grief, Kakashi-senpai. But wouldn't it be better to protect their legacy rather than staring at their names all day? "

Kakashi watched Itachi walk away, as his thoughts resembled an inferno. He took several moments to calm himself.

Well back to training it is, he thought. Maybe he should enlist Gai to help him.

Nah, he wasn't that desperate yet.


	14. Uchiha Itachi - Miracle Worker

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared incredulously at the man he had chosen to be his successor.

"You wish them to become Konoha shinobi? The missing nin from Kiri?" he asked, hoping he had misheard.

"I'll need five days Hokage-sama. I am confident I can change their loyalties. Ibiki-san can interrogate them after that. They'll be an asset to Konoha. Zabuza is a S class swordsman and Haku has a nearly extinct bloodline. It'll be better than to execute them." Itachi replied.

Hiruzen continued to stare at at him, he looked back unflinchingly. He sighed." You have five days. As far as I am concerned, the execution is only delayed. While you are an excellent shinobi, I doubt even you could shift Kiri nins' loyalty to Konoha, strong enough for Ibiki to pass. Dismissed."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

Five days later, Hiruzen was surprised to find Ibiki with reports declaring all four missing nin cleared for duty as Konoha shinobi and a request for Itachi to be transferred to T and I.

" If I didn't know better, I'd swear he could read minds. He completely broke Zabuza in a day, just by talking to him. Somehow he knew his life story and his ideals. He played him like a string, telling him how Konoha is different form Kiri and all that he hated about it. Same with Yuki Haku. He didn't do much with the Demon Brothers but they are loyal to Zabuza. Now all four of them are loyal to Konoha or more importantly, to Itachi." Ibiki said, grudgingly.

Hiruzen signed the forms enlisting the four as Konoha shinobi and rejected Itachi's transfer request.

It was nice to have his faith in his successor reaffirmed.


	15. Shinobi no Yami

Shimura Danzo was the example of perfect shinobi. He was not supposed to show emotions, but at moment he had a strong urge to tear his hair out in frustration. Hiruzen had just announced to the clan council that his chosen successor was Uchiha Itachi and his reign as the Godaime would start following the chunnin exams.

Even the blonde menace was better than an Uchiha. Danzo didn't know how his plans regarding the Uchiha had messed up so badly. He was sure they would not back down from their coup if he continued to oppress them. But then they had to form alliances with every major clan in Konoha and protest their treatment at clan council meetings. Now Konoha is swarmed by Uchiha in almost every department. Even their damned Police Force accepted non-Uchiha now. Young upstarts started moving out of the clan compound into apartments in Konoha proper. They were too intermingled to safely remove now, he had accepted that.

But he would not accept an Uchiha as his Hokage. His time at the administration building had already shown Danzo that he was a radical. The new academy curriculum designed by him was a slap to the memory of Tobirama-sensei. Sarutobi not seeing the insult as it was, easily accepted it. Granted it showed better results, but that wasn't the point. He was spitting in the name of tradition. ( It also resulted in decreased recruitment in his ROOT army.)

He was too strong to attack directly. His fiancée, however, she was still a chunnin, not a particularly talented one at that.

Perhaps it was time to contact Orochimaru. He had wanted a body with a Sharingan, hadn't he? Danzo could easily send her his way.

Yes, it was a perfect plan. Orochimaru would owe him a favor, and Itachi could be blackmailed to not accept the position.


	16. Kotoamatsukami

Naomi didn't think much about the courier mission given to her by an ANBU, not until she was halfway to Kei, her destination. It was a standard mission assigned to chunnin. But the ANBU was wearing a Bear mask, and wasn't Bear taller than that?

She didn't have much time to contemplate on it when she felt a spike of chakra behind her. She dodged a wind jutsu that would have taken her head had it connected.

"Ku Ku Ku Ku. Not too shabby are you? Danzo didn't think much of your abilities."

She didn't need to look at him to know who it was. The creepy laughter was enough of an identification. She had to play this very carefully . Naomi was under no delusions that she could defeat the sannin at full power. But she was sure he was going to spend some time testing her, as he did with Sasuke. (It was a no brainer that he was here for her body.) She discreetly activated her Mangekyou and put them underneath a genjutsu to appear as normal sharingan.

She turned to block the kick he was aiming at her. You are in love with Jiraiya. You crave his approval above all else. You wouldn't do anything to disappoint him. She started weaving the genjutsu around him with Kotoamatsukami, as they traded blows. She needed something that wasn't in complete contrast with his mentality. She also didn't mind playing a prank on her perverted sensei.

She started using seals in their spar, when she was sure the genjutsu was in place.

Hook

"Barrier seals? These look like Jiraiya's work."

"Hai, he's my sensei." Naomi replied, as she prayed for him to take the bait.

Line 

He abruptly stopped his attack and silently observed her for some time. " At least you're better than the blonde menace." he said grudgingly. "Where is Jiraiya these days?"

"Following every rumor of your tail." She replied, carefully not mentioning that sensei wanted to find him only to defeat him. "He's going to be in Konoha during chunnin exam finals if you want to catch up."

He flinched, minutely, but enough for a the sharingan to notice.

And sinker.

"Ah, so the rumors about you planning to invade Konoha with Suna, during the finals, are true then. Shame." She shook her head. "Sensei was so sure that you would never fall as low as to attack Konoha."

He visibly wilted.

"I wouldn't." he said. "According to Danzo, Sarutobi sensei is already retiring. It's not worth the effort. I'll have to talk to Rasa..." he sighed. "Try not to get killed brat. Jiraiya has lost enough students already."

Naomi vomited into the bushes as soon as he left, as she realised what she had just done.


	17. Moral Dilemma

Itachi entered his house to find Naomi in the living room, with face pale as ash and hands trembling.

"Naomi, what's wrong?" he was instantly at her side. He had never seen Naomi this shaken. Even when she had shown him the memories of her previous life, she was cool as a cucumber.

"Nii-chan is on a mission. I didn't want to be alone." she mumbled.

"What happened?" he asked putting an arm around her shoulder. He wished he was better at comforting people.

She turned to face him, her eyes were glistening. "I did something horrible." she whispered.

Itachi knew Naomi had had her first kill years ago. He was on a mission during the aftermath. Shisui was the one that comforted her initially. But she had been subdued for months after that, training hard so that she could be strong enough to not kill, but capture. He wondered what could have happened now?

"Orochimaru attacked me. I used Kotoamatsukami against him. I made him believe that he was in love with Jiraiya sensei, and sensei would be disappointed if he hurt me or attacked Konoha. He dropped his plans of invasion."

Itachi didn't know if he should feel incredulous or proud. He decided on confused. "That's a good thing, isn't it? Why are you upset?"

She looked at him sharply. "Don't you get it? I just reprogrammed a human. I changed the way he is supposed to think. I took away his free will." Tears were freely falling down her eyes.

Ah, of course.

"Naomi, he attacked you, didn't he? What do you think he was planning of doing after he defeated you?"

"Possessing my body." she reluctantly replied. "It's not the same, though."

"Isn't it? An opponent of superior skill attacked you and you used every skill in your arsenal to not only survive but also benifit your village. There's nothing wrong with it. And despite what you think you didn't brainwash him. You just made him believe he loved someone. How is that worse than being a sociopath? "

She didn't argue.

" I just wish I didn't have this power. I can just make anyone believe or do anything I want. It's not something to be trusted with anybody." she said.

" Then I'm glad you and Shisui are the only people who have it." He told her.

"Nii-chan has never used it. I did, after I had decided I wouldn't. Itachi, I don't trust myself anymore."

"If it had been anybody else, including Shisui, they would never be this distraught over using it. You are the most honorable person I know Naomi, despite being a shinobi. I trust you." he looked in her eyes pointedly. "I love you." he added, because it was about time he told her.

She looked at him like a deer caught in flashlight.

"Nii-san. Tadaima." Sasuke called from the entrance.

Naomi quickly composed herself. Still, Sasuke knew her well enough to spot something was wrong. "You're all right?" he asked her, almost with concern.

Naomi grinned at him. "I'm fine. I'll be even better if you give me a hug."

Sasuke looked at her as if she was a disgusting bug and walked away towards his room, pointedly ignoring her.

"Itachi-chan, your otouto is mean to me." she said, dramatically.

Itachi pulled her in a hug. "It's all right, Naomi-chan. Somehow, I believe you'll survive."

She's melted into his arms. " I love you too." she whispered softly, lips right next to his ear.

Itachi was sure Sasuke was internally freaking out about how much he was smiling during dinner.


	18. Mission - Seduce Itachi

Naomi growled when Itachi stopped her as she tried to get rid of his shirt.

"What?" she asked, breathing hard, as she removed her mouth from his.

"We're not married." he said, as if that explained everything.

"What does that have to do with anything?" She shrieked. This was the third time Itachi was leaving her all high and dry.

"Don't be crass, Naomi." he said.

Naomi took ten deep breaths, trying to calm herself. "All right, I get where you are coming from. You like to be all traditional, but... But it's not safe, you know?"

"Safe?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. We can't go on missions like this, all aroused and distracted. We could get killed." she tried to nod sagely.

Itachi frowned. "You're right."

"I am?" She didn't expect him to cave so easily.

"Yes. We should stop making out."

Naomi stood there gaping as Itachi left the clearing. " That was not what I meant." she shouted.

Naomi never believed that the seduction lessons from her kunoichi classes would ever be useful for her.

She admitted she was wrong as she used every seductive taijutsu maneuver she had ever learned against her spar with Itachi. He eventually pined her against a tree and brought his lips next to her ear.

"Naomi." he said in a deep throaty voice.

"Yes?" She breathed out, shivering slightly.

"Did you know...?"

"What?"

"ANBU have seduction resistance training." he said, trying to hold in a laugh.

"Baka." she hissed, kicking his legs.

It was the morning of chunnin exam finals, when Naomi entered Itachi's room.

"Let's get married today." she announced.

Itachi blinked. "Today?"

"Yeah. Today is a good day. You're becoming Hokage today, team 7 will make chunnin, we avoided an invasion that was supposed to happen today. So, yeah, today." Naomi babbled, trying to hide her nervousness.

"It takes a lot of preparation to get get married Naomi-chan. We'll need a week atleast." Itachi tried to explain, patiently.

"We really don't need any preparation. There this marriage ceremony of Uzumaki clan that Jiraiya sensei taught me. The Yondaime and Kushina-san got married that way. I'll draw a seal on you, you'll draw a seal on me. Then we channel chakra on each others seal. And done. We're married. This'll be a secret one, of course. We can have a proper wedding later, when we achieve world peace. We can invite all other Kages." She said, showing him the seal.

Itachi studied the seal for a long time, with his sharingan. "All right." he said, finally.

"Great. Take off your shirt." She took out the ink and brush from her pouch. "We have to draw the seal on the sternum, the central tenkutsu." She explained at his raised eyebrow.

She tried not to be distracted while drawing the seal on him, but enjoyed the way his eyes darkened when he drew hers.

"Okay then, time to channel Chakra." What followed was not something she could ever express properly with words. It felt like Itachi's chakra was embracing her, mixing with her, loving her. Somehow it felt much more intimate than sex ever could be. She wondered if Itachi was feeling the same. From his expression, she concluded he was.

He opened his eyes to gaze at her lovingly, then captured her lips in a kiss. It was different than any one they had ever shared. There was such powerful intent and emotion behind it that she lost all trains of thought.

It suddenly hit her as she separated for air, "You devious bastard, you manipulated me."

His smirk definitely had a smug edge to it. "I don't know what you're talking about, okusan."

She shivered pleasantly at the address.


	19. Surprises for Shisui

Shisui could freely admit that his team was a disaster. Despite their immense potential, all three of them were a big ball of issues. Sakura with her crush on Sasuke and a civilian mindset, Sasuke with his holier than thou attitude and Naruto being dumber than rocks, were no where near being ready for chunnin exams.

But ever since the mission to wave, he had noticed a change. Naruto, of all people, was studying fuinjutsu with utmost passion. Sakura was asking for Genjutsu training and being appointed to hospital as trainee medic nin. And Sasuke, had asked to be trained in the taijutsu style he saw Naomi use against the missing nin. Well, whatever his sister had said to the brats, Shisui wasn't complaining. But it looked like he had to change his mind about entering them into the chunnin exams.

To his surprise, the other two rookie teams were also entered. His team easily passed the first test, not with skill, but solely by Naruto's bullheadedness.

The second test was in the forest of death. Itachi was the proctor, which wasn't as much of a surprise as seeing him use a Genjutsu on a Suna team to open their scroll inside the forest and getting them disqualified.

"Classified." he had said, when Shisui questioned him about it.

All three of his genin passed the preliminaries, which was a pleasant surprise. Apparently not for his imouto as she had already arranged training for all three of them. Sasuke with Shisui, Sakura with Naomi and Naruto with Jiraiya, who was in the village for some reason.

The month passed quickly, and he was pleased to see Naruto kick the fate obsessed Hyugga in the face. ( Was he the one Naomi had saved from being kidnapped? He couldn't remember.)

Sakura performed admirably against Rock Lee, but ultimately admitted defeated. Since the kids monstrous speed, he couldn't blame her for it.

Sasuke was on the roll as he easily defeated the Nara heir and Aburame heir and went off to meet Naruto in the finals.

Shisui thought it to be the biggest surprise of the day when Naruto won! Using seals!

What the hell!

He was very proud of his students and all three of them had a good chance of getting promoted. As he stood up to go and congratulate them, the Sandaime decided to give him and rest of Konoha another surprise.

He was retiring and was being replaced by Itachi as the Godaime, effective immediately.

How had Shisui not known about this? This couldn't be a sudden decision. Itachi had to be shadowing the Sandaime for months. Suddenly all his shifts in the administrative buildings started to make sense.

After the announcement, he was accosted by his students. Naruto loudly complaining about not being selected Hokage instead of Itachi, Sasuke sulking because he didn't know that Itachi was getting the promotion and because of losing to Naruto, and Sakura demanding he treat them because they gave such a good performance.

He agreed to treat them and hours later he was returning home with full stomach and lighter wallet.

He wondered if Naomi knew about Itachi's promotion. He went to ask her, short-circuiting the chakra lock she had put up on her door and opened it.

And what he saw was a lot more of his sister and Itachi than he ever wanted to see.

"Ah! My poor virgin eyes." Thank God his Sharingan wasn't on.

They quickly covered up with a quilt. "Nii-chan, a lock on the door means something. And what the hell are you talking about having virgin eyes. There's no part of you that's virgin. You've been in a relationship with Anko, for duck's sake." Naomi shouted at him, flashing her Sharingan.

"Don't bring Anko into this. You're not old enough for ..."

"Shisui. Please, get out." Itachi interrupted him. Shisui stiffened. It was a direct order and Itachi was the Hokage. He couldn't disobey. Judging by the look in Itachi's eyes he knew that.

"Fuck you, Itachi." He said, walking out.

"No, thank you. I prefer your sister." came his reply before he could shut the door.

Shisui definitely did not need to hear that.


	20. The Morning After

Sasuke entered Shisui's house with a scowl on his face. He was surprised to find that his normally cheerful sensei was sitting sulking at the table eating his breakfast.

" Is Nii-san here?" he asked.

"Naomi's room." Shisui grunted out. "Be papered to be traumatized at your own risk."

Sasuke tried to get the implications of that. "And you're here? You're fine with it?"

Sasuke knew first hand how protective Shisui was of his sister. There was no way Shisui was fine if what he implied was happening.

"Hokage-sama ordered me to get out." He bit out. "Why are you looking for him anyways?"

"Father asked me to get him to come home."

"I'm afraid I can't come home right now, Sasuke. I'm already running late. Tell father I'll come in the evening." Itachi appeared from the staircase with damp hair and a small smile on his face. Sasuke tried not to think about the reason behind the smile.

"Shisui. I'm sorry about last night. I didn't think about the implications until I had already said it. Please forgive me." Itachi bowed.

"Whatever. Atleast you used silencing seals." Shisui looked drastically less bitter.

"I'll see you later, Sasuke." Itachi left, ruffling his hair. Naomi was definitely having an influence on him.

"Ohaiyo Nii-chan, brat. It's such a nice morning, isn't it? " Speaking of the devil, Naomi entered the room, wearing a dopey smile.

"Imouto. You look happy." Shisui said.

"I'm very happy. Last night was definitely the best night of my life." Naomi answered shamelessly.

"I don't want to hear it. Neither does Sasuke. So, let's talk about something else." Shisui quickly cut her off.

Sasuke 'hn'ed.

Before anyone could say anything, a snake slithered from the window onto the table, left a letter in front of Naomi and poofed away.

Naomi calmly opened the letter, as Shisui asked, "Was that a snake?"

"Hm. Didn't you know Nii-chan, Orochimaru and me are besties now. We met on one of my missions two months ago and he took a liking to me. Now I'm helping him research about immortality jutsu and trying to convince him that Jiraiya sensei would not like him to be experimenting on babies."

"Isn't he a missing nin?" Sasuke questioned.

"Oh, don't be silly, he is the Otokage." Naomi replied.

"I see." Shisui nodded.

Sasuke decided to leave just then, lest he catch the craziness.


	21. Sakura's New Job

Sakura was very excited about her new job as a medic. Iryo nin jutsu came so easily to her as if it was made for her. Learning civilian medicine from Naomi sensei had made it even easier for her.

People supposedly found it quite hard, as only a rudimentary show of Mystical Palm Technique, along with some statergy and tactics, against her match with Rock Lee was enough to grant her a promotion. Whereas Lee wasn't promoted even after winning.

Her first day at the hospital went swimmingly. She was partnered with Kabuto, who she remembered from the chunnin exams. He taught her the ropes and after their shift even taught her some medical jutsu, which she got on her first try. Even Kabuto was impressed, though his smile was a bit fixed.

Sakura had finally found her calling. She wasn't meant to be combat Ninja like the rest of her team, but this was something she could be good at. She wouldn't be useless anymore.

It was while walking home that Sakura realised that she hadn't thought about Sasuke-kun the whole day. Maybe she was getting over her crush on him.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice Ino until she ran into her.

"Hey, watch out Forehead. So lost in your thoughts about Sasuke-kun that you can't even see where you're going?" Ino taunted her.

"I'm not thinking about Sasuke-kun. I was thinking about my job at the hospital. Honestly, I don't think I'm even in love with Sasuke-kun anymore." Sakura replied.

"What do you mean? How can you even say that?" Ino was scandalized.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "He isn't that great when you see him following after his nii-san like a puppy. I was training with Naomi sensei last month. You should have seen how romantic Itachi-sama was with her. After seeing that, you kind of lose interest in Sasuke-kun's 'cool' personality."

"So you have a crush on Hokage-sama now?"

"No. That ship has sailed. He wouldn't even look at anyone except Naomi sensei. I'll just keep my eyes open for greener pastures. See you later, Ino-pig." Sakura walked away enjoying the stunned expression on Ino's face.


	22. Kabuto's Freedom

Kabuto was annoyed. The pink haired girl was able to learn those B rank jutsu on the first try.

He knew he would no longer be the best medic in Konoha if this continued. He wanted to snarl out in rage. It was so difficult to gain a sense of self identity as the best medic, and the pink menace had to ruin it all.

If only he could get rid of the seals of Danzo and Sasori, then he'd be able to go to Orochimaru-Sama.

"Hello, Kabuto-kun." greeted a disgustingly cheerful voice.

"Uchiha-San." he replied. He recognized her as the Hokage's fiancé whom he had sent to Orochimaru-sama's location on Danzo's orders. He wondered how she had escaped.

"I just received a request from our mutual friend to remove two seals from you."

"Mutual friend?" he asked.

"You know, long hair, yellow eyes, likes snakes."

Kabuto quickly grabbed her and took her to his work room. "Explain." he demanded, his heart pounding in his chest.

"He was my sensei's teammate. We started exchanging letters after our first meeting. I suggested him to use body made of Hashirama's cells for his immortality jutsu, instead of changing bodies every three years and behold, we're friends. Now where are those seals? "

Kabuto warily showed her the seals which she removed in minutes, to his astonishment.

"There you go. By the way I wished to thank you."

"For what Uchiha-San?"

"For giving me the fake mission to Orochimaru's location. If you hadn't I wouldn't have made friends with him, so thank you." She said with a sweet voice and a sharp smile.

He felt a shiver run down his spine.

It would probably be best to leave Konoha as soon as possible.


	23. Neji's Woes

Hyuuga Neji was decidedly bitter about his circumstances. Since his entire team failed to pass in the chunnin exams, despite Lee's victory, Gai sensei had been shifted to active jonin roaster and the team had been split up. Tenten had joined team 10 and Lee had joined team 8, as their teams were one member short due to promotion of Nara Skikamaru and Aburame Shino.

Neji on the other hand was dumped on some no name chunnin, who didn't even have the decency to arrive at time on their first day as a team.

He waited, while sulking over the fact that all 5 genin promoted were a year younger than him where as he was passed on for the promotion. After one hour, he was understandingly furious when an Uchiha girl, no more than 3-4 years older than him, appeared with a shunshin.

"Yo." She had the audacity to say.

"You're late." He bit out.

"I was lost on the road of life." She replied, airily.

Neji couldn't stop himself from attacking her with a gentle fist strike, which she promptly blocked and striked him on his sternum, which somehow blocked all his chakra pethways.

"What did you do?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"You'll find Neji-hime, that sealing chakra is easier by using actual seals than simply blocking tenkutsu. Anyway, we have to be at hokage tower. We are already late. Follow me." she said, removing a seal from his chest, which she had somehow put on him, in one strike.

He very much wanted to tell her that they were late because of her, but having his chakra sealed was an unpleasant experience.

They reached the mission assignment desk where the new Godaime was handing out missions.

"Uchiha Naomi, Hyuuga Neji. Your mission is to negotiate a new treaty with Suna based on the given guideline." He handed Naomi the scroll. Neji perked up. That was easily a B, possibly A rank mission.

"Not worried about me causing the fourth shinobi war, Hokage-sama?" Naomi asked the Hokage, smirking. Of all the chunnin available in Konoha, he had to get her, didn't he? It was like he attracted weirdos.

"I'm supposed to have more trust in my shinobi than that, Naomi-chan." The Hokage replied with a smile, instead of admonishing her for disrespect.

Neji soon found himself running towards the Wind country border with a speed that even Gai sensei wouldn't force them on.

"Was it necessary to set that pace? We have plenty of time to complete the mission." Neji asked her.

"Quite necessary. Since, we have two more secret missions." she casually replied. "The first one is about your seal, actually."

Neji instantly became defensive.

"You have a seal on your forehead that you don't like very much, as you made it clear in the chunnin exams. I am a seal master who can examine it and possibly remove it. You can put two and two together."

No, it was too good to be true. "What do you want?" he asked warily.

"Nothing except secrecy, from you as well as anyone else I manage to remove it from. I'm just doing my mission."

"The Hokage is involved in this?" That was a surprise.

"The Hyuuga clan got a missive signed from the Shodaime that the Konoha administration will not interfere in their clan traditions, unless they violate the laws of the land. The Hokage has his argument planned to be presented to the damiyo that slavery is prohibited in land of fire, but he doesn't have the proof that this seal is actually a slaver's seal."

"The proof is right here, on the damned forehead of every branch house member of my clan." Neji shouted.

"The proof which would need to be inspected by the damiyo's seal Master. What do you think would happen to any branch house member who volunteers for that? Furthermore, this requires a lot of political capital, which Itachi currently does not have. He will present his argument before the ceremony which will happen when the next heir is three, so more people are not branded. But right now, I can remove the seals of those who already have it, provided it is kept a secret. The Hokage cannot be involved in this, do you understand?"

"Yes. Completely." He answered, removing his forehead protector, desperately trying to contain his tears.

Naomi put her fingers glowing with chakra on his forehead and examined the seal.

"Sloppy." She declared. Just a few seconds of tweaking later, "There, it's gone." She handed him his forehead protector, which reflected his now bare forehead.

"Thank you." he managed to choke out after some time.


	24. Midnight Rendezvous with Gaara

"You said there were two secret missions." Neji asked Naomi the next day, after they had discussed how and when the branch house members would meet Naomi, to get their seals removed, when they get back to Konoha.

"Yes. We are supposed to fix the seal of the Suna jinchiruchi."

"The red haired kid with the gourd, that came to chunnin exams?"

"Yes, how did you know?" she eyed him sideways.

Neji shrugged. "He had two different Chakras, like Uzumaki, and Hokage-sama used a genjutsu on him to get him disqualified in the second stage."

"You saw that too, huh? Itachi is much subtler in his genjutsu but jinchiruchi require high amount of Chakra."

"He was quite subtle. I just have good eyes." He smirked.

"Aren't you the epitome of modesty?" Naomi muttered. "Anyway, Gaara is the youngest son of the Kazekage and the jinchiruchi of one-tails, Shukaku. Shukaku is quite mad, he is not properly sealed and can therfore affect Gaara's mind. If he had continued in the chunnin exams he would have been quite dangerous to other competitors, Konoha or otherwise. We definitely wouldn't be boasting about no casualties."

"Isn't he Suna's responsibility, though? Why are we interfering, possibly risking war, if we're found out?" he couldn't help but recall Naomi's words in the Hokage office.

"Suna just wants a mindless weapon, which can be unleashed wherever they want, even Konoha."

That was a far leap of logic, but he didn't say anything. He wasn't there to ask questions.

"Do you have a plan?" he asked instead.

She nodded. "We'll be most probably put in the guest quarters of the Kazekage's mansion as diplomats. We are bound to cross paths with Gaara. I'll discreetly put a hiraishin seal on his person, then we'll teleport to him at night, dressed as Suna Ninja. I'll work on the seal while you'll keep watch."

Neji decided to just roll with her mention of casual use of hiraishin and asked, "Shouldn't we try to put some kind of sedative in his food, so that he doesn't wake up when you work on his seal?"

"That won't be necessary since he doesn't sleep. His biju will be released if he does."

Neji had many fantasies of going to S rank missions, in his academy days. The reality was much scarier than dreams.

The next day passed as was planned. They were given rooms quite close to Gaara and were given an appointment to meet the Kazekage a week later. When they encountered Gaara, Naomi stumbled against him, discreetly planted a seal on his gourd, which he could only see with his Byakugan, and smiled at Gaara after dodging a strike from his sand that could have easily killed her.

Neji covered himself like Suna nin, left a Kage bunshin in his place (taught to him by Naomi) and stealthily entered Naomi's room, where she was already waiting for him. She beckoned him closer and as soon as he touched her, he felt like he was being squeezed through a tube and exiting from the other end. He quickly reoriented himself and dodged Gaara's sand. Naomi was already moving closer to Gaara.

Suddenly Gaara collapsed on the ground, unconscious. Neji tried to prepare himself to fight a biju, when Naomi grabbed him and they hiraishined back to her room.

"That was quick. You can apply seals without contact, too?" Neji asked, as Naomi wiped blood from her face. When was she injured?

"His seal was planted on his heart. I couldn't work on it without opening his thoracic cavity."

"What did you do then?"

"I entered his minscape with the help of my Sharingan and tried to reason with Shukaku. I told him how his father would be disappointed in him. He still insisted on being unreasonable. So I threatened him that his grandmother would be revived from the moon if continued to drive his jinchiruchi crazy. He then agreed to let Gaara sleep, work with him and stop trying to get him to kill everyone."

"I see." Neji nodded, completely abandoning any desire to understand that. "I'll go to bed, then. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Naomi replied, cheerfully.


	25. Suna-Konoha Alliance

Rasa was not happy when Orochimaru backed out of their alliance to destroy Konoha. Suna was on the verge of economic collapse due to the damiyo channeling all their missions to those leaf nins.

Now, Konoha had the nerve to send diplomats to negotiate a new alliance. He had put them in a room near Gaara and gave them an appointment a week later, hoping they would be killed and he could claim innocence.

But during the week they had managed to make friends with Gaara, who was now somehow able to sleep without letting Shukaku out and was drastically less bloodthirsty. He immediately ordered the seal to be checked, since konoha was famous for its seal masters, but the seal was untampered.

Finally, the day of their appointment arrived, and the two of them were standing in Rasa's office. They looked quite young, now that he was to observe them properly.

"So, Konoha insults us by sending children." He tried to rile them up.

The girl looked at him incredulously. "Kazekage-sama, you're aware our Kage is eighteen, right?"

Ah yes. Sarutobi's new successor. He was curious to see what this young man wanted from their alliance.

He cleared his throat. "State your terms."

It was the girl, Uchiha if he was right, who started to read, "Konoha and Suna have been allies since the Third Shinobi War and perhaps its time we take this alliance further. Konoha proposes to outsource 60% of the missions it receives from the Land of Wind to Suna in exchange of a political marriage in the Kazekage's bloodline. It also proposes a program of 3 exchange students at a time to learn the art of iryo nin jutsu in Konoha and poisons and antidotes in Suna and having an ambassador of each village in the other.

Whatever Rasa had expected from these negotiations, it wasn't this. There weren't many times that he was struck speechless, but this was one of those. This would solve most of his problems. The economic crises, the poor medical services, the crowing of Chiyo regarding dying art of Suna poisons... There wasn't any need to negotiate.

"Agreed." he said in his most dignified voice.

"Great." the girl chirped, setting the document down on his table. He carefully read it and signed.

"When can I expect you back?"

"There won't be any need to go all the way to Konoha to just get a signature." She put the signed scroll in a seal covered container and Rasa was astonished to see the scroll disappear in a flash of yellow.

"Yeah, it was an inanimate version of hiraishin. Hokage-Sama, should send it back soon. Actually, Hokage-sama wished to offer the seal expertise of these hiraishin seals connected to the flood end of Naka River if you construct a lagoon. Suna needs water and Naka floods every year, it would be benificial for both the countries."

Why didn't Sarutobi make this man his successor sooner?


	26. The Fence-Sitter's Reaction

Onoki didn't like the fact that Konoha had more competitors in the finals of the Suna chunnin exams than Iwa. He especially didn't like it when a young man in Hokage robes took a seat next to him.

"Tsuchikage-dono." The brat greeted him. He couldn't be any older than 18.

"Who's Saru going to give the hat to when you die, a toddler?" he sniped.

The upstart had the audacity to smirk at him. "It's nice of you to care about Konoha's leadership. You don't have to worry though, I already have a successor in mind and he is already a chunnin." He glanced at him. "What about you? I've heard that your granddaughter wishes to take your office after you retire."

The air was instantly chilled with Onoki's killing intent. "Was that a threat?" he growled.

The brat, who didn't even budge under his killing intent, blinked. "No. Why would you think that?"

Onoki dropped his killing intent. "You aren't very smart, are you?"

He heard a snort from their side. The source turned out to be young Konoha kunoichi, who was acting as the Hokage's gaurd.

"Gomen, Hokage-sama.". She mumbled.

Surprisingly, the Hokage didn't even look annoyed, just long suffering.

"Girlfriend?" Onoki guessed.

"Fiancé, actually." He was answered.

Onoki discreetly looked at the kunoichi again. She was pretty enough. At least, the brat had a good taste in girls.

The young Hokage, didn't try to start a conversation again and Onoki concentrated on the matches. After 3 of them he noticed a pattern.

"Your genin aren't even attempting to go for the kill." he commented.

"That's because I told them not to, unless their life is in danger." The brats sharingan was activated as he observed the match.

"Why? To show the client how noble you tree-huggers are, after your Yondaime slaughtered hundreds of children of Iwa in minutes." He hissed.

The Hokage turned towards him, face devoid of any previous light heartedness.

Onoki realised this was the first time he was seeing the real Godaime Hokage.

"The clients already know Konoha is the least brutal of all Ninja Villeges. If they didn't, the chunnin exams in Konoha with zero casualties, six months ago was sufficiently advertised. I told my genin to avoid killing, because I don't want another war."

"What do you mean?"

"Wars start because of resentment among the villages. This is how resentment starts, doesn't it? Killing when there is no need to. That's why you resent Konoha so much. Because you think that the Yondaime didn't need to kill those genin. Yes, genin, not children. No matter how young they were, they were ninjas you sent to war."

"But he didn't need to kill them, did he? There was no point in killing them. He could have easily escaped with his hiraishin. " Onoki's face was red with rage.

"His team was sent to destroy the Kanabi Bridge, to end the war. It's destruction was not a happy coincidence. They weren't expecting such large forces there. He was protecting his team, three of his students, 13 years of age, one of whom was lost that day."

Onoki took that in slowly. He didn't detect any lie from the young man in front of him.

"His team..." he murmured. That was the reason. Konoha nin did anything and everything to protect their comrades, didn't they? Years of anger and resentment he had built up against the dead man, suddenly left him, leaving him drained.

He looked at the young Hokage in front of him. "You said you didn't want another war, as if you know it." He couldn't have been more than 5 during the war. Konoha, despite having its prodigies, didn't send them to war this young.

"Not as you do. I was four when my father took me to the Kusa front to show me the realities of being a Ninja. That was the day I decided to change that reality."

Onoki must have been smoking something because when he looked at the young man in front of him, he actually believed he could do it.

"Send me your diplomats when you get back." he grumbled, arching his back, trying to get rid of the ache. Maybe it was time to pass on the hat to Kurotsuchi. She would definitely be flexible enough to deal with the possibility of this new alliance with Konoha.


	27. Meeting with Mizukage

Yagura was dead but Kiri was still bleeding from his reign. That was the reason that when the offer for an alliance with Konoha came, Mei leapt at the chance.

The meeting was taking place in Wave country, a neutral ground, but with a lot of goodwill towards Konoha (Supposedly a group of Konoha nin helped them fight against a tyrant ruling over them). Mei examined the documents presented to her by the Hokage, a really handsome specimen, and tried to find out his agenda.

"You've made aliiances with Suna, Iwa and now Kiri. Do you aim to destroy Kumo, with the support of all other major villages, for what they tried to pull at the treaty signing 10 years ago?" she finally asked him, when she couldn't find a hidden agenda in the clauses.

"No, I am planning on forming an alliance with Kumo soon. I have a goal to achieve peace among the Elemental Nations."

She waited for the punch line.

"You're serious?" she asked, when none came.

"Yes, I..."

Suddenly Mei felt a malicious Chakra similar to Yagura, fill her senses.

"Please excuse me Mizukage-dono, it seems one of my ninjas is in trouble." said the Hokage, removing his cloak and shunshining away.

She followed him to find a completely decimated clearing with a blond konoha Ninja bleeding red, malicious chakra, a white haired missing nin she recognized as Hidan of Yugakure and a masked Takigakure missing nin whom she guessed to be the infamous Kakazu.

Before she could really take in their appearance, the Hokage was already fighting them. He ensnared Hidan in genjutsu quickly enough that his partner didn't have the chance to respond and then proceeded to cut his head and limbs from his torso, with his katana. Then he quickly moved on to Kakazu, striking him five timed on his back where his weird face mask were present. Kakazu disintegrated into a mass of threads.

It was over in a minute. A battle with two S class nin, while Mei had just stood there stunned.

He then moved towards the blond kid who was once again human (the Kyuubi jinchiruchi, her mind supplied) and check him over for any injuries.

"Inu-san, please seal what is left of them." He called out to his ANBU gaurd. "Naruto-kun, are you all right?"

Naruto? After the Great Naruto Bridge?

"I'm fine nii-san. I was just training in the clearing when these two weirdos came. They called me the Kyuubi brat and told me to come with them. I tried to fight them, but they were really strong, dattebayo. Then I asked the Kyuubi for rent, to defeat them, but I lost control." the kid babbled.

"It's fine, Naruto-kun. You did really well. Do you think you can stand up?"

Naruto tried to stand, but couldn't. "It really burns." he whimpered, trying and failing to act brave.

"All right, then. Climb over my back." Itachi knelt down in front of him.

"What?" the kid squeaked.

"Sasuke does it all the time." Naruto climbed over his back at that.

"I hope you don't mind postponing our meeting till tomorrow, Mizukage-dono." Itachi addressed her.

"Of course not. I'll be waiting for you tomorrow then." She told him and walked away, flipping her hair.

Mei knew what qualities she liked in men, and this one had all of them, and she would really like to make him hers.


	28. Revelations for Naruto

Naruto was hurting in places he didn't even know he had. Itachi nii-san carried him to his room in the inn and set him down on the bed.

"Who were those people, nii-san?" he asked, unable to stop himself. Still, Itachi nii-san had always answered his questions, unlike jiji.

"They were S class missing nin, Hidan and Kakazu, members of an organization called Akatsuki. Their goal is to collect all jinchiruchi and extract their bijus from them."

"Jinchiruchi?" He asked. He had never heard that word before.

"It means power of human sacrifice. It used to describe people who have tailed beast sealed inside them."

"There are more people like me?"

Nii-san nodded. "Yes, there are nine. Well, currently eight. The three tails is not sealed right now. The Akatsuki are after all of them."

Naruto silently thought about it. He had to get stronger then. If such strong Ninja were after him, he couldn't let his friends get hurt.

There was something else he wanted to know though.

"Do you know why the Yondaime picked me to seal the Kyuubi in?"

"Because you were his son. Because he couldn't trust anyone else to give this responsibility to. Because as the Hokage, he couldn't ask any of his Ninjas for their child when he had his own. Because, your mother was the previous jinchiruchi of Kyuubi and you have the Uzumaki life force to heal from the kyuubi's Chakra. It could have been any of these reasons."

Naruto sat their in stunned silence. " My dad was the Yondaime? And my mom was the jinchiruchi?" he asked in a small voice.

" Yes, Naruto-kun. You are the son of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina."

"Kushina." he whispered to himself. His heart stang with betrayal. "Why did jiji never tell me."

Itachi nii-san sighed. "Sandaime-sama did everything he thought was good for you while also keeping the villagers interest at heart. He perhaps didn't consider you mature enough to keep it a secret and feared that Iwa would send assassins after you for being your father's son."

"But you don't think it was the right thing to do?" Naruto guessed.

"I don't agree with many of Sandaime-sama's decisions. But I've never doubted his motivations. He always tried to do what was best for the village and it's people."

"Well, I already think you are a better Hokage."

Itachi nii-san gave him a small smile. "Thank you, Naruto-kun. I'm sure you'll be better than me."

Naruto's heart leapt up in joy. "Really? You think so?"

"I know so. You are the inspiration behind many of the things I do."

Naruto beamed up at him. Today was the best day of his life. He got to know about his parents and that there are others like him, Itachi nii-san told him he'll make a great Hokage (sincerely too, not like jiji) and told him that Naruto was his inspiration. Yup, great day. Now only if he would stop hurting.


	29. Marital Troubles

It was night by the time Naomi reached Wave. She was really tired after her mission and Wave was a bit out of the way, but she knew how important this was for Itachi. This would be the third major village he would make an alliance with and she wanted to be there with him for it.

She tracked his chakra to a clearing outside the village, only to find him smiling at a red haired woman, who (from what she could see) was trying very hard to get into his pants.

He turned to face her. "Naomi-san, what are you doing here?" He asked in his Hokage voice.

"I have some news that couldn't wait, Hokage-sama." she said, trying hard to control her emotions.

"I would see you tomorrow then, Mizukage-dono." he actually smiled at her again.

As soon as we reached his room, she applied the silencing seals and turned to face him. "What was that?"

"She apparently had questions regarding some clauses." he rolled his eyes.

"She was trying to seduce you."

"Really? I didn't notice." he said, dryly.

"You were letting her seduce you." she pointed out.

"We are going to sign the alliance document tomorrow. She is attracted to me, if that's going to prevent her from looking too closely at the clauses that benifit Konoha, then I'm fine with it." He shrugged.

"I see."

"Naomi." he came forward to kiss her. She stepped backwards.

He sighed. "Naomi, I'm the Hokage. I'm supposed to..."

"Yeah, sure." she cut him off. "I'm going to go now."

Naomi hiraishined directly to her room, nearly exhausting her chakra and fell on her bed. She fell asleep crying, and dreamt of powerful, beautiful red heads stealing away her husband.

She didn't wake up till late afternoon and received a summon to the Hokage tower soon after that.

Itachi was working on paperwork when she entered.

"Hokage-sama." she greeted him, formally. "How did the signing go?"

"Favorable for us. Much better than I anticipated." he gave her a pointed look.

"Congratulations." she bit out.

"Naomi, please stop being unreasonable."

"Give me a seduction mission."

"Pardon?" he looked perplexed.

"I said, give me a seduction mission, Hokage-sama. I am requesting it, for the good of the village, it is my duty as the Kunoichi of this village."

He just stared at her. She didn't find any joy at finally leaving him speechless.

"Give it to me, dammit." she shouted.

"Naomi... I.."

"If you don't have one for me right now, may I be dismissed?"

She barely waited for him to nod before storming out of his office.


	30. I Am Sorry

Itachi entered Shisui's and Naomi's house to find both of them reading.

"Naomi." he greeted her, not knowing what to add.

"Itachi." she replied.

"Trouble in paradise?" Shisui asked, setting his book down.

No one answered him for a minute before Naomi said, "I am going for a walk.", as she disappeared with hiraishin.

"What did you do?" Shisui bluntly asked.

"The Mizukage was attracted to me. I led her on."

Shisui processed that for a few seconds before saying, "You know, I always wondered when your emotional stuntedness would bite you in the ass."

"This is serious, Shisui."

"I know. I am not even supposed to help you since you cheated on my sister."

"I didn't cheat on her. I'd never cheat on her. Why do you..." He took a deep breath. "She's the only one I love, she'll always be. I... I know I messed up. I am sorry. Just tell me how to apologize."

Shisui looked at him for a while, as if judging his soul. "Flowers always work." he said.

Itachi decorated Naomi's room with carnations, indicating his apology. It was after midnight, when she returned.

She didn't say anything, just looked at him after taking in the decoration.

"I'm sorry. For leading Mei on. For hurting you. For telling you to stop being unreasonable. I promise I'll never do that again. Can you forgive me?"

" 'S all right." she said, her voice was scratchy, as if she'd been crying. "It wasn't that much of a deal anyway, I was just jealous. She's really beautiful and she's also a kage. I'm ..." she sobbed.

Itachi pulled her into a hug. He didn't bother telling her that she was being ridiculous. He knew she already knew that. "I love you. He simply told her.

" Love you too. " she said, sniffing .

"Did you just wipe your nose with my shirt?" he asked incredulously.


	31. Tsunade's Return

"Tsunade-hime." Tsunade heard voice as he approached their table. "How long has it been? Hello, Shizune." he glanced at her apprentice.

"Not long enough." Tsunade muttered loud enough to be clearly heard. "What are you doing here?"

"I've got a message for you from the Hokage."

"You can tell sensei to shove it. I am not returning to Konoha."

"The message is not from sensei. Have you been living under a rock? Itachi has been the Godaime for almost a year."

"Itachi? Mikoto's son? Isn't he like 10?" she asked.

"19, hime. You've been away for a long time."

"19 is still not old enough to be Hokage. What was sensei thinking?"

"He's been wanting to retire for years. But, young or not, Itachi has been a wonderful job. The missions are an all time high so is Konoha's reputation. He completely overhauled Academy, leading to 3 times efficiency output. He even managed to sign alliances with Suna, Kiri and Iwa."

Tsunade nearly spit out her sake. "Iwa?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "He impressed Onoki, somehow. Anyway, I have two messages for you. First is your annual return to Konoha request. You would be given the charge of the hospital and the medical program."

"Not interested." She replied.

"Thought so. Well the second message might interest you. Itachi has been digging around Danzo's activities and has found a large number of crimes committed by him. He is compiling a case and the list of charges includes conspiracy for Dan's death. He wants to know if you wish to attend the trial or not. "

Shizune gasped. Tsunade slammed her glass against the table. "Jiraiya, if this is a ploy to get me back to the village..."

"I swear it's not. Itachi has the actual evidence but this is not something Danzo is above doing."

"Why would he want to kill Uncle Dan, though?" Shizune asked.

"Because he was a popular Hokage candidate, and didn't fit Danzo's criteria of an ideal Hokage. He tried to do something similar to Itachi. He sent his Uchiha fiancé on a trapped mission, to Orochimaru, when it is well known that he wants the Sharingan."

"What happened to her?"

"She's fine. Orochimaru spared her because she is my student. They are apparently best of friends now."

Tsunade blinked at that.

"Anyway, the trial will happen on an emergency clan council meeting next week. Are you coming?" he asked.

"Damn right, I am." Tsunade growled.


	32. The Warmonger's Trial

Inoichi was very happy with the Godaime's reign. Itachi was bringing changes in Konoha that he had expected Minato to bring, but he had been very cautious in the first year of his reign, following every one of the Sandaime's instructions. If he was honest, he wasn't a fan of the Sandaime, and they had been living under his rule for decades now. Itachi was a breath of fresh air to this staleness.

He was surprised to be called to an emergency clan council meeting at midnight, but was curious to see what was going on. He reached the chambers and was surprised to find Tsunade occupying the Senju Head seat.

"Thank you for coming promptly." The Godaime started the meeting. "I've encountered evidence suggesting one of our members indulging in criminal activities and thought it best to give them a trial here in secrecy rather than going to the civil court. Shimura Danzo, you are put under arrest for the duration of of the trial."

ANBU placed themselves around Danzo who had began fuming in his seat. Inoichi couldn't say he was surprised to learn that Danzo indulged in criminal activities. It was more shocking that Itachi actually found proof and was organizing a trail.

"This is and outrage. You become Hokage for a year, and you think you can harass councilmembers? Cease this nonsense at once." Danzo shouted.

"You will be given a chance to defend yourself, Danzo-san. The charges against you are blood line theft of Sharingan and Mokuton, kidnapping numerous children from orphanages, killing half of those children, providing children to experiment on to Orochimaru, conspiracy for murder of Kato Dan, conspiracy of failure of Hatake Sakumo's last mission leading to his suicide and the third shinobi war, conspiring with Hanzo the Salamander behind the Yondaime's back in order to prolong the war with Iwa and a confrontation leading to death of one of Jiraiya-sama's students in Ame, using an unapproved seal on Konoha shinobi binding their loyalties to you instead of the Hokage. What do you plead? "

Inoichi had to stop himself from gaping. The old warhawk was responsible for so much?

The Sandaime broke the stunned silence to defend his old friend. "Itachi. I don't think this is necessary, digging up..."

He was cut off by Itachi. "Sarutobi-dono, I am presiding over this meeting as the Godaime Hokage. I would ask you to address me as such." Ooh, burn! "Danzo-san, what do you plead?"

"I only did what I thought was good for the village." Danzo answered.

"And that is the only reason you are not being tried in public. Do you plead guilty to these charges or not?"

"I do."

"The bloodline theft alone has a death sentence in the Konoha charter, not to mention innumerable counts of murder, four counts of treason..."

"I've never committed treason. Everything I've done has been for this village. I've dealt with the shadows, so Hiruzen could rule in the light."

"That is not a good enough defence. All those in favor of death sentence, please raise your hands."

Everybody except the Sandaime raised their hands.

"If you think I'll accept this, then you are a fool." Danzo snarled, moving to put his hand on his abdomen, which was deftly caught by an ANBU, who was somehow expecting it.

"We can add the charge of attempting to murder the clan council by suicide seal." Itachi said dryly. "Shark, please carry out his execution."

Danzo's head was promptly removed from his body.

"The meeting is over. Thank you for coming. Dismissed."

Inoichi saw Tsunade making her way over to Itachi and stopped to listen.

"I'm taking over the hospital." she said. She was trembling slightly.

"As you wish, Tsunade-hime." Itachi replied, innocently, as if her being present to witness the bloody death of her lover's murderer wasn't a ploy to get her over her hemophobia. Inoichi really liked this kid.


	33. ROOT Reboot

The ROOT base was being invaded by Konoha ANBU, who proclaimed that Danzo-sama was dead, and that they would be put under normal Konoha ANBU after going through T I. An Uchiha girl was going around the base, removing the seal from everyone's tongues, and another Uchiha, who was apparently the Hokage, was giving names to everybody who didn't have them.

201 eagerly waited for his turn. When the Hokage reached him, a flicker of recognition passed through his eyes.

"Do you already have a name?" He asked.

"I'm 201." he replied.

"You used ink in your jutsu, don't you? What do you think of being called Sai?" The Hokage asked him.

The newly christened Sai was surprised that the Hokage knew about his jutsu, but decided not question it. Besides he quite liked his new name. "Thank you for the name." he bowed to the Hokage.

"You're welcome. I would like to assign you to chunnin squad 7, instead of ANBU, if you don't mind. You'll be able to make more friends that way."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

The Uchiha girl entered the room at that point, "Itachi, I'm almost done. Some of them need to go to the hospital." Like the Hokage, she also seemed to recognize him when she saw him. "So, you found him. Hello, Sai. I'm Naomi, it's nice to meet you. I'd like to remove you seal if you'd open your mouth."

Sai dutifully opened his mouth, wondering how she knew his name when the Hokage had named him just a few seconds ago.

After Naomi removed his seal, she took out a gift packed book and gave it to him." This is for you. Open it. "

Sai opened it to find a book titled 'How to make friends and keep them'. His eyes teared up and he berated himself for showing emotion.

Naomi gently put her hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's all right. Danzo isn't here anymore. You can show as much emotion you like."

Despite knowing nothing but Danzo-sama's mercy, his entire life, Sai found that he quite liked the fact that he was dead.


	34. An Alliance with Kumo

A eyed the two chunnin Konoha had sent to him as diplomats. An Uchiha and a Hyuuga. It was like Konoha wasn't afraid of bloodline theft anymore, now that he had succeeded his father. Either they were really brave or really stupid.

"And why should I agree to this buddy - buddy agreement? Exchange students, Ambassadors, Joint missions, outsourcing, trade agreements... Heh, it's just you using a stronger village to boost the power of your weak one."

"You aren't calling Konoha weak, are you? Did you forget who won the last three wars?" the Uchiha said.

"That was when Konoha had a strong leadership. I saw your Hokage last month at the Iwa chunnin exams, buddying up with Onoki. He is bloody prettier than my wife. It is the proof of him being weak that he wants these alliances."

"Hokage-sama can defeat you any day." the girl fumed.

So much faith in their Hokage. "Care to put your money where your mouth is? Let's have a match between me and your Hokage. If he wins, I'll agree to the alliance. If I win, I want the Hyuuga here to impregnate 10 kumo women."

The Hyuuga made a noise of protest.

"It's all right, Neji. Ita... Hokage-sama isn't going to lose." the girl told him.

She extended a fist towards him. "Deal. But you'll sign the alliance with binding seals. No back-stabbing or take backs."

He bumped her fist with hers, impressed with her knowledge of Kumo customs.

A month later, A was standing in the arena across the young Hokage. The stadium was filled to brim. Shame, it was going to be a short match.

"I'm going to give you a free shot." he called to him.

Itachi raised an eyebrow and shot a kunai at him.

He easily dodged. "Pathetic." he growled and activated his lightening armour preparing to knock him out. As soon as he reached him, he vanished. A had a sense of deja vu. He looked back to the place where his kunai had landed and saw him standing there.

"Hiraishin." Was that a freaking requirement to become a Kage in Konoha?

A stopped underestimating him right then. He pulled out his best moves but still wasn't able to get him. The rascal somehow knew all about his moves and their counters, and he hadn't even activated his sharingan.

After much effort he was able get a drop on him and put a sword to his throat. Instead of surrendering, he dissolved into a pack of crows.

"Genjutsu." A pulsed his Chakra to find himself bound by Ninja wire and had a kunai at his throat.

"Do you surrender?" the Hokage asked him. He nodded, to the silent disbelief of the audience. But he knew he couldn't win this. He was thoroughly outclassed by a teenager. Maybe an alliance with Konoha wouldn't be so bad, if only for self preservation.


	35. Nagato or Pein

Jiraiya entered the Hokage office through the window. Itachi was surprisingly less uptight than sensei about these things.

"You called?"

"I've a mission for you." The Hokage got right to the point. "We already have a tentative alliance with all the Great Nations. It is time to move on to the smaller countries, starting with Ame. Since you already have years of experience there, you are best person to be sent as a diplomat." 

"Me? A diplomat? What about the dream team? They have succeeded everywhere else." Jiraiya asked. 

"Ame is potentially hostile territory, currently not bound by any treaty signed after 3rd Shinobi War. Naomi and Neji are still chunnin, while you can fight your way out or reverse summon yourself." Itachi answered. "Since we are on the topic, if the situation turns hostile, you'll reverse summon yourself immediately. There isn't any need to get yourself killed." 

"You're asking me to retreat from a fight? Me? The Great Toad Sage of......" 

"That was an order." He was cut off. 

Jiraiya deflated. "Understood, Hokage-sama." 

Jiraiya reached Ame in record time, only to find it hadn't changed at all in the past 20 years. He had to suppress the urge to sneak in like a spy and walked in after declaring his intention at the main gate. He was led to a room to wait for the Kage. 

To his immense surprise, the grown-up versions of two of his students entered, one of them bearing the eyes of his third one. 

"Yahiko, Konan." he murmured, recalling Itachi's words at Danzo's trial (while internally beating himself for forgetting to ask for details). "Nagato is dead, then?" he asked, holding out a small amount of hope that he wasn't. 

"Hello, Jiraiya-sensei." Konan greeted, not answering. 

Yahiko, on the other hand, completely shook him up. "I am not Yahiko. His body is being used as one of my paths." 

"Who are you, then?" Jiraiya's face hardened. 

"I am Pein..." he began, only to be interrupted by Konan's pointed cough. "I mean, I am Nagato, sensei. My real body isn't in the state to greet visitors." He curtly said. 

"Please forgive Nagato, sensei. He is currently reevaluating his life choices." Konan offered. 

"What do you mean?" 

Konan sighed, while Yahiko (Nagato, his mind supplied) looked away. 

"Yahiko died, sensei. We were grieving and angry, when we were approached by a man claiming to be Uchiha Madara. He offered us a way to achieve piece. We accepted. Have you heard of Akatsuki?" Konan asked. 

"The missing nin group aiming to capture jinchiruchi? There were only four known members. Hidan and Kakazu were killed by Itachi, while Kisame and Sasori were easily taken care of by Onoki, Han and Roshi. Are you telling me you two are members?" 

"We were." Nagato said. "According to Madara's plan, we were going to capture all nine biju and create a weapon of mass destruction to use on Ninja villages, so that they strive towards peace due to their shared pain." 

Jiraiya couldn't believe he thought Nagato to be the child of prophecy.

"Are you insane?" he asked bluntly. 

Nagato atleast had the decency to look a little embarrassed. "I will admit I was misguided. The recent political changes over the Elemental Nations have forced me to acknowledge that." 

"We definitely are not associated with Akatsuki, anymore, and wish to enter an alliance with Konoha." Konan told him. "It would certainly benifit Ame. Would the Hokage still accept the alliance he offered, after knowing our previous afflictions." 

Jiraiya thought for a moment. "Yes, I'd venture. He probably already knows all about this." He grumbled. "He knows about everything. I'm his spy master and even I don't know how he does that."


	36. An Old Friend

Kakashi was working with Naruto, helping him add wind element to his rasengan, on the Hokage's request, when an orange masked man with red and black cloak, suddenly appeared on the training field. He recognized him as an Akatsuki member, like the missing nin that attacked Naruto a year ago in Wave.

The masked man grabbed Naruto and disappeared using a space time jutsu that looked suspiciously like Kamui. 

Not questioning it for the moment, Kakashi activated his Mangekyou Sharingan and followed them using Kamui. He found himself in what seemed like a pocket dimension, where Naruto was fighting the masker nin or rather getting soundly thrashed by the masked nin. 

Kakashi quickly joined the battle and realised that their enemy was at least S rank, and had quite a few surprises up his sleeve, including turning intangible at will, mokouton, and surprisingly, a Sharingan. Between Naruto and him, they were able to get one hit which shattered his mask, only to reveal the half-scarred face of a man Kakashi had grieved for 15 years. 

"You always manage to make things difficult, don't you Kakashi?" the man wearing Obito's face snarled. 

"You know this joker, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked. 

The twitch on his face, in reaction to the insult, dismissed the doubts Kakashi had about his identity. 

"Obito." he said softly. 

"Heh? Your teammate? The one on my dad's team?" Naruto asked. 

"That's the one." Kakashi said, dryly, dodging an earth spear that would have taken off his head. 

"What happened to you, Obito?" Kakashi asked, not really expecting an answer, but hoping to buy some time. 

"I saw you kill Rin, after you promised to protect her." Kakashi almost wished he hadn't got the reply. 

"And why are you doing this? What would capturing Naruto accomplish?" 

"It's not about Naruto. I want the Kyuubi. It, together with all biju, would help me create a perfect world, where Minato sensei is not late, you don't break your promises and Rin doesn't die. Even Naruto will have his parents in that world. This world.... " Obito fainted, mid sentence, as Naruto appeared beside him. 

" Good job, Kakashi sensei. " Naruto beamed at him, slapping chakra suppression seals on Obito. 

" What do you mean, Naruto? " Kakashi asked, perplexed. 

"Weren't you distracting him, by getting him to monologue? Naomi nee-chan taught me that bad guys always like to monologue, and we should never listen to it, but should take advantage of the distraction. I just henged into a spider, got close to him, then put a chakra draining seal on him." Naruto explained, as he tied Obito up with ninja wire. 

"I see. Good job, Naruto." he said, faintly, his chakra exhaustion finally catching up to him. " I'll get us out here, then take Obito to T & I. You get the Hokage."

"Hai sensei."

About an hour later, Kakashi was standing in the Hokage office, glaring at Itachi. 

"Something you wish to say, Kakashi-san? You've been standing there for ten minutes." the young Godaime asked, without looking up from his paperwork. 

"You knew." he accused. "You knew that Obito was alive and after Naruto, when you told me about the Mangekyou Sharingan." 

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." the young Godaime said, looking up. "But let's assume I knew. Would you have told yourself if you had been in my place?" 

Kakashi didn't say anything for a minute. "No." he said, grudgingly. "What's going to happen to him?" 

"Life imprisonment in psych ward." was the prompt reply. 

"Why?" Kakashi was baffled. 

"Didn't he tell you about his plan to cast a genjutsu of every human, with the moon?" 

Now that he thought about it...... 

"Will I be able to visit him?" 

"Once a week. Under heavy security." 

Good enough, he supposed.


	37. What Went Wrong?

Obito sat in his cell, trying in vain to get his restraints loose. He knew even if he managed to lose his cuffs, the amount of chakra suppression seals on him were enough to subdue a jinchiruchi. He still knew he'd get out of here. Zetsu would search for him if he didn't turn up on their meeting place. Konoha knew nothing about Zetsu or his abilities. He was fairly sure he'd get free. And then Kakashi would pay for interfering.

As he sat there, waiting for Zetsu, he contemplated what had gone wrong. He couldn't even pin point when it had started to go wrong. Possibly 8 years ago, when he was depending on the Uchiha coup to provide him with fresh supply of Sharingan and suddenly there wasn't a coup anymore, after that Orochimaru's betrayal, Hidan and Kakazu's deaths, followed by Kisame and Sasori. Nagato and Konan's withdrawal from Akatsuki was the last straw, which prompted him to do the job himself.

With the new alliances, he couldn't even depend on war to bring the jinchiruchi out in the open. Naruto was one jinchiruchi whose location he knew for sure, so he decided to start with him.

But somehow Kakashi had figured out how to use the Mangekyou Sharingan and Naruto had inherited Kushina nee-chan's creativity along with Minato sensei's sneakiness.

He was broken out from his musings by Zetsu's arrival, with his black and white head poking through the floor. However, as soon as he was completely out of the ground, he was suddenly trapped in some kind of barrier seal. He tried to escape by sinking into the floor, but was burned by the barrier that apparently also covered the it. Slowly the walls began to converge, and Zetsu as burned by black flames. In about five minutes Zetsu was nothing but ash. The door suddenly opened and an Uchiha girl entered.

She collected Zetsu's ash in a storage scroll before promptly destroying it, leading to destruction of his remains.

"Why the hell did you do that?" he asked.

She shrugged. "He is a persistent bastard. Don't want him coming back through ashes. How are you feeling?"

"What do you mean?"

"Have your murderous urges decreased?"

"Why..." Obito started to say, but paused to think about it. He was actually feeling a lot less murderous towards Kakashi than he did a minute ago. "Yes. How did you know?" he answered the girl.

"I examined you when you were unconscious. There was a control seal over your heart that also had an aggressiveness component. I couldn't remove it without an opening your thorax and it also served as a tracker for Zetsu to find you. It dissolved automatically with the death of the controller. "

A control seal? She was lying. She had to be. This was some twisted form of interrogation. But they didn't exactly need any information, did they?

"How did you know about Zetsu?" he asked.

"It's cute that you think that I'll tell you." she threw him a smirk. "Don't worry, Kakashi-san is coming to visit you. You can grill him all you want about information. He has been waiting such a long time too. We had to wait untill Zetsu was dead, before allowing any visitor, you see. Wouldn't want him activating the seal by accident. "

Almost immediately after she left, Kakashi entered and took a seat.

Obito waited for him to say something to try and make him feel guilty. Instead he took out a book with an orange covor and began to read.

" What are you doing, Kakashi? " he growled.

"Maa, did you say something?"


	38. Wedding

Naomi fidgeted while trying to maintain the seiza position. The kimono she was wearing had more layers than her wedding cake. She was sweaty and itchy before even the ceremony started.

Next to her, Itachi was sitting in perfect seiza, no amount of discomfort present on his face. Sensing her gaze, he turned towards her to send her a quick smirk, before turning forwards and resuming a neutral expression.

Naomi took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. It probably wouldn't be good to murder her husband on the wedding night, especially not with the foreign kages and village headmen in Konoha.

She glanced at the guests and discreetly noted the number of foreign ninjas. This wedding must be a security nightmare. That explained the late night in the office yesterday. It wasn't fair how he could pull off an all-nighter and still look so perfect.

Finally the fire monk stopped speaking, and they were declared husband and wife. Naomi quickly made her way towards the food stall. Seriously, the fasting before wedding custom was ridiculous. But Mikoto oba-san had insisted on it.

Itachi followed her as a dutiful husband should but didn't take anything to eat himself.

"Aren't you hungry?"

"Since you are my better half, your nourishment is enough to sate me. Weren't you listening to what the monk said?" He smirked, knowing well enough that she wasn't.

She narrowed her eyes. "You already ate, didn't you?"

That made him roll his eyes. "Not everyone is as much of a glutton as you, Naomi."

"I liked our first wedding better." she huffed.

"I did too." he said, smiling at her.

"Ha. I knew it. You're as miserable as me. You're just good at hiding it."

"I wouldn't say I'm miserable. I'm happy to be finally married to you."

"We've been married for three years, Itachi-chan." she reminded him.

"We've been technically married for three years. We haven't been living together, though. In fact, in the last three years we have spent less time than ever, except the year you were on the training trip. And even when we managed to get alone, talking wasn't something we spent much time on."

She mentally recalled their steamy few and far between meetings. "That's true." she agreed.

"We haven't even sparred in a while."

"You really enjoy beating me down, don't you?"

"Do you remember out first spar?"

"I couldn't forget it even if I wanted to." she pointedly activated her Sharingan.

"Your sharingan activated due to your determination and resolve to beat me. Do you know how mine did?"

She had assumed it was the same for him. But now that she understood him as she did, she knew it couldn't be because of that. "No. What activated yours?"

"It was because of joy. It was the first time I felt truly happy while sparring. You somehow managed to get rid of all my burdens and insecurities for those precious few minutes. That was what activated my sharingan."

"I don't know why nii-chan insists you cannot be romantic." she told him, kissing him softly on the cheek, mindful of their audience, eyes promising more when they were alone.


	39. The Dobe

One day Sasuke woke up in his own room, missing the smell of ramen, and he realised that he was in love with the dobe. To his horror, the first person he thought could help him with this revelation, was his sister in law, Naomi.

"I'm in love with Naruto." he told her.

"You've finally realised. Great, Itachi owes me 500 ryos. He though that Naruto would be the first to realize his feelings." she replied.

"What?"

She rolled her eyes. "You've been in love with each other since you were thirteen. The whole village has been waiting for both of you to realize that. There's even a huge betting pool for you first kiss." 

"You mean to tell me that Naruto has been in love with me, too?" 

"Of course. He doesn't know it yet, though. We'd surely have know if he had figured it out. He is as subtle as a truck. And as dense as a rock. He wouldn't get it if you court him subtly." 

He could imagine it. Asking him to dinner would be considered equivalent of treating him to Ramen. Complementing him would be acknowledging him as a rival. 

"I'd probably have to kiss him senseless for him to get it." 

Naomi smirked at him. "Could you do it in the Hokage office? I'll give you half the amount when I win the pot." 

He contemplated about it. On one hand, it would be too public, diminishing his image as the stoic Uchiha. On the other hand, Itachi nii-san bet against him. He deserved some embarrassment. 

"60%" he countered. 

"You've got yourself a deal. As a bonus, I'll even give Naruto-kun the Talk. I doubt Jiraiya-sensei told him anything about gay relationships." 

Sasuke was not blushing as he left. He wasn't. 

The next time Sasuke saw Naruto enter nii-san's office, he went in after him, shoved him against the wall and attacked his mouth with his. Naruto was surprised at first but soon he started responding. Sasuke backed away when he was out air. 

"Teme... what?" Naruto asked, his cheeks pink. 

"I've actually spelled it out for you, dobe. You still need to ask?" 

"No, I.... Uh. Sasuke... I..." As much fun as it was to see the dobe speechless for once, it was even for enjoyable to see nii-san unsettled. It wasn't obvious to anyone who didn't know him well, but Sasuke knew what signs to look for. 

"As happy I'm for both of you, Naruto-kun has a mission, Sasuke." he said with a straight face, his left lower eyelid twitching slightly. 

"Sure, nii-san. I'll leave. See you later, dobe." He sent a wink and smirk at Naruto and Itachi, respectively.


	40. Hinata, The Vengeful

Sasuke entered Itachi and Naomi's house to collect his share of the earnings that Naomi won from the pot about his and Naruto's first kiss, only to find Hinata already there with her head on Naomi's lap, sobbing uncontrollably.

"It's... it's just... not fair, Nee-chan. I... I hate him." she said, before eating a cinnamon bun Naomi had offered her, with incredible speed.

Naomi had already noticed him and was motioning him to get out, but Sasuke stood his ground, curious about what was going on. He was shocked to hear the terrible threats, the normally sweet Hinata mumbled, to the poor soul's genitals, who had somehow managed to wrong her, all the while sobbing, stuttering and nibbling on cinnamon buns.

It was some time later when Hinata finally noticed him, and her demeanor changed completely. She activated her Byakugan and shouted, "You!", moving threateningly towards him. He stepped back reflexively, before starting to dodge the fast paced jyuken strikes.

"Hinata-chan, Naruto-kun would probably be upset if you castrate him." Naomi called out.

To his relief, Hinata stopped. "I guess, you are right." she mumbled, before sending him a glare towards him. "But he stole Naruto-kun from me. I had already thought of names of our children, who would have his eyes and whisker marks..." and she started sobbing again.

"I'm sure you can still have children with Naruto-kun." Naomi offered.

"What?" Sasuke protested, because Naruto was his. There was no way he was sharing him, even with the threat to his privates.

"Sasuke obviously doesn't have the parts to bear children. Naruto is going to need someone to surrogate for him, someday." His sister in law continued, selectively deaf to his protests.

"You are right, Nee-chan. I'll have to become strong so that Naruto-kun chooses me when the time comes." Hinata said, bowing to Naomi before leaving.

"Did you just..." Sasuke was too mad to form a proper sentence.

"I just saved you a long stay in the hospital. You don't know how dangerous a vengeful Hinata is. She put Hiashi-sama in hospital last year, for insulting Naruto."

"But I am not sharing Naruto with her."

"Who says you have to? It's puppy love. She just wishes to be someone important to Naruto, be it a surrogate mother for his children. You don't have to worry." she said, digging around a cupboard and taking out a bundle of notes.

"How do you even know her?" he asked pocketing the money.

"I once saved her from a life of being hated by her cousin due to her uncle's death and defeated her fated to be dead kidnapper by chilly powder."

Sasuke wondered if Naomi did this purposely to mess with people.


	41. Dinner With In-laws

Fugaku eyed his daughter-in-law with concern. The normally boisterous girl, who always had something to say at family dinners, be it praising Mikoto's cooking, teasing Sasuke, needling him or flirting with Itachi, was sitting quietly, picking at her food.

Mikoto had noticed too, and was trying to engage her in a conversation, while Itachi kept shooting his wife subtle concerned glances.

Mikoto had just asked her when they had been planning on having children, when she sucked in a sharp breath and Itachi tensed up. It was Itachi who replied in a neutral voice, "We have decided not to have children."

Fugaku was shocked. After Sasuke revealed his relationship with Naruto, Itachi was his and Mikoto's only hope at grandchildren. "Why?" he couldn't help but ask.

Naomi straightened up and answered, "I can't have children. We just came from the hospital. Tsunade-sama said I've got some chakra meiosis disorder, I can't ever be a mother."

Itachi sighed. "Naomi..."

"I know." she cut him off. Apparently, they had talked about this before, and his son wasn't able to comfort Naomi much.

Mikoto tried to get them to be optimistic, "You can always adopt or use surrogacy."

That apparently had been the wrong thing to say, as Naomi tensed up.

Itachi cleared his throat, "We won't be using a surrogate." He looked at Naomi pointedly, apparently she had already suggested it. "And I'd rather not discuss this before Naomi and me have had a chance to talk about it properly."

Fugaku had never really gotten along with Naomi. He had been the firmest opposition when Itachi had chosen her to be his wife. She didn't exactly fit the Uchiha mould. But over the years, he had come to realise that she was the perfect match for his eldest. While he was solemn and serious, she was impish and lively. They balanced each other. She had also somehow grown on Fugaku, like a fungus.

He could also acknowledge that she was a very strong person. Growing up an orphan, in a clan that scorned her because of her personality, with only an elder brother for support, she had certainly built an armour around herself. But now he could see that, despite putting on a tough face, she was barely holding herself together, armour threatening to crumble any second.

He had to fix this.

"Naomi." he began. "You are rude, boisterous, loud and childish. You are a shinobi of mediocre capabilities and everything an Uchiha is not supposed to be." Fugaku saw her eyes dim at each of his words, while his son's eyes had hardened to promise retribution if he didn't shut up. He continued. "Despite all this, you have never let anything stop you from being the annoying and insufferable person that you are. Are you going to allow something as insignificant as infertility, to do so?"

She blinked at him, before turning to Itachi, "Am I in a genjutsu? I swear I just heard Fugaku-sama give me roundabout compliment."

Fugaku huffed. "You are as incapable as ever. Uchiha don't ask their spouses if they are in a genjutsu, they activate their sharingan. I don't know how you even managed to acquire it."

"And all's right in the world again." her lips quirked in a smile. "Say, Mikoto kaa-chan, this tokayaki is really good, is this a new recipe?" she turned towards Mikoto while Itachi gave him a thankful smile and a silent apology.


	42. Crushes

"It wasn't that funny." Itachi said, as Naomi didn't stop giggling. 

"It was." she disagreed. " 'I would like to show you my art sometime, un. I'll even ask Onoki-Sama to extend my stay as ambassador. I didn't know Konoha had such artistic individuals, un.'" She snorted, bursting into giggles again.

Itachi sat down and sighed, "I'll never understand women. Mei-san flirting with me brings you to tears while Diedra flirting with me gives you a case of hysterical giggles."

She sobered up at that. "I already said,  I overreacted about Mei. And you have seen how much Diedra hated you in the Anime. His flirting even sounded like some ItaDei fanfiction."

"ItaDei?" He almost dreaded to ask. 

"It's fans shipping you and Diedra. There were others for you too - Izumi, Hana, Kisame, Shisui, Naruto." she paused, as he took a sip of water. "Sasuke." she added, gleefully. 

He managed not to choke on his water. "Sasuke?" he asked, faintly. 

She shrugged. "People apparently misunderstood your brotherly love." 

"Why would they feel the need to 'ship' me with someone, anyway?" 

"The Naruto anime was quite a sensation, you know. People were addicted. My sister also had a big crush on you. She collected your plushies, posters and action figures, and re-watch the episode with you with it and then cry holding your plushy." she shuddered. 

He tried not to think about his wife's other worldly sister having an obsessive crush on him. Instead, he asked, "Did you have a crush on someone, too?"

"Well....It wasn't nearly as obsessive as Lily's, but I really liked Kakashi."

"Kakashi-San. Why?" He was very thankful for Kakashi-san's fixation with Obito, at the moment. 

"He had such a hip and cool attitude. And he used it to piss off people, and used to be late to everything, to mess with people."

"How is that attractive?" He couldn't help but ask. 

"I was a teenager." She simply answered, as if that explained everything. "You aren't jealous, are you? It was just a silly crush, years ago, that too on a fictional character. I haven't even really talked to the real Kakashi. Besides, you are the only person I've been in love with." 

Itachi looked away. He wasn't pouting.

Naomi sat down on his lap and turned his head towards her. "Perhaps you need a demonstration of how much I love you." she murmured, against his lips.


	43. You Need Glasses

Shisui had come with Naomi to the summer festival. Apparently, Itachi was too busy, and his little sister. didn't want to come alone. He was happy to be there for her, but he was Bored, with a capital B. The summer festival had stopped being fun for him when he was 8, but Naomi somehow never managed to outgrow it.

"Nii-chan, what the 1st prize?" She asked, pointing towards the board above the 'Hit the Target' stall, eyes squinting.

"It's a box of dango. And you're not playing that, it's for children. You're the Hokage's wife. Act like it."

"The only example I have of a Hokage's wife is Kushina-sama, and you might remember she wasn't the epitome of dignity." she grumbled.

Shisui imagined Naomi following Kushina-sama's prankster ways, and shuddered. "She isn't the best role model for you. Try acting like Itachi."

"No, thank you. He's boring enough for the both of us." she replied.

"Hey, imouto. How come you weren't able to read the board yourself?"

"There was a glare from the angel I was seeing it from."

Shisui doubted that.

The next day he found Naomi squinting at her seal work, going as far as moving the paper closer to her eyes.

"All right, that's it. We're going to an optician. You need glasses."

"I don't." she countered.

"Naomi-chan, you're obviously having difficulty seeing properly. Are you worried Itachi won't find you pretty anymore, if you get glasses?"

She blushed. "Don't be silly. Itachi would find me pretty even when I get old and wrinkly. Glasses aren't going to change that."

"Then why aren't you getting them?"

"Because they wouldn't work." she mumbled.

"Why not?" he asked.

"BecauseivebeenoverusingmyMangenkyou."

"Excuse me." Shisui said, slowly. "Did you just say that you've been overusing you Mangekyou?"

Naomi nodded.

"When did you even get a Mangekyou Sharingan?"

"During the training trip with Jiraiya."

"8 years? You've had it for 8 years? Why didn't you tell me?" he forced himself not to ask about how it was activated. It wasn't a question he would want to answer himself.

"Uh... It never came up and I forgot?" she tried to give him the puppy eyes.

"You realize if you had told me, you wouldn't be going blind, right now?" Shisui questioned.

Naomi gasped. "Nii-chan, I'm not going to rip your eyeballs out off your sockets."

Shisui pinched his nosebridge. "Naomi that's just a horror story told about Madara, to the children of the clan. We can simply get a mutual vitreous transplant. It'll diminish both of our chances of going blind and reduce the chakra cost of techniques."

The birds chirped.

"I didnt know that."

"Obviously." he deadpanned.

She threw a pillow at him. "Don't imply I'm stupid. Even Itachi didn't know."

"Itachi couldn't have known. It is a secret passed through our branch of family. Tou-san told me when I graduated."

"Well, he obviously didn't tell me." she grumbled. "I can tell Itachi, right?"

"As if you won't, if I refuse." Shisui snorted. "Sure, tell him. Then, he can also tell you how stupid you were, for not telling me for 8 years."

He got another pillow to his face for his troubles.


	44. Saving the Children

Sasuke and Naruto were sitting in front of Itachi and Naomi, respectively. 

"So, this is an intervention." Naomi began, ominously. 

Sasuke glanced at his brother, silently asking what was going on, who just sighed and slightly shook his head. So, Itachi was just going along with it for Naomi's sake. That didn't help him narrow it down. Naomi had a flare of being unpredictable. 

"Both of you should have children." she said. 

"What?" Naruto voiced his thoughts. 

"You have to revive the Uzumaki clan, Naruto-kun. And the Uchiha clan also needs an heir." 

"Nee-chan, you know that I actually can't get pregnant in my Sexy Jutsu form, right?" Naruto asked. 

Sasuke couldn't decide if he wanted to groan or punch Naruto in the face for saying that, while nii-san raised an eyebrow at him. 

Naomi also shot him a quick glance before saying," I know that, and I'm not going to think about how that was your first thought. I was implying surrogacy. Sakura was your teammate, right? And she's career oriented. She wouldn't want a kid of her own to take care of. She can have a daughter with Sasuke's DNA and then both of you can be little Sarada's fathers."

"Why would I name my daughter 'salad'? 

" I don't know. Why don't you tell me? " Naomi snapped at him, while nii-san pinched his nose. 

Naomi took a deep breath. "Anyway, Naruto can have his kids from Hinata-chan. A boy called Boruto and later a girl called Himawari." 

"Isn't Hinata a clan heir? Why would she want to be surrogate to my kids?" Naruto asked. 

"Because she admires you. She would love be the mother of your children." 

An understatement, if Sasuke ever heard one. He couldn't believe how even someone like Naruto was oblivious to the Hyuuga heir's big crush on him. 

Naruto shared an incredulous glance with Sasuke. That's when Naomi brought out the big guns. 

"Both of you know that I can't have children. Should I even be deprived of neices and nephews to spoil?" She said putting a hand over her stomach. Sasuke wondered if she used a jutsu to make her eyes look that big and sad. 

It was Naruto who caved in first. "Don't cry, nee-chan. I'll ask Hinata-chan, I promise. Please stop crying." 

Naomi just sniffed harder and Naruto elbowed Sasuke meaningfully. 

"I'll talk to Sakura." he muttered. 

Almost as if a switch was flipped, Naomi was back to smiling again. "Thank you. You guys are the best. I'll get dinner." 

"Ramen!" Naruto exclaimed, joyfully, tailing after her to the kitchen. 

"Your wife is crazy." Sasuke told Itachi. 

"You really don't have much room to talk about Sasuke." his brother replied with fond amusement. 

Sasuke glanced towards the kitchen to see Naruto preaching Naomi about the virtues of ramen, and silently acknowledged Itachi's point.


	45. Shisui In Love

“There's a girl!” Shisui cried, practically falling through his sister's bedroom window in his haste.

In retrospect, this was maybe not the best way to announce himself. On the bed, Itachi jerked where he was sitting astride Naomi's hips, Naomi rolled in a blur, and Shisui yelped, flinging himself to the side to dodge the three kunai, two shuriken, six senbon, and a naginata that came flying through the air to slam into the wall where his head just was.

(Itachi and Naomi were very naked, and Shisui honestly had no idea where the weaponry came from, but with Naomi he’d learned that it’s better just…not to ask.)

There's a long moment of silence before Naomi groaned, face-down in the mattress. She pulled a pillow over her head, muffling a slew of curses that would make Fugaku wash her mouth out with soap, and then peeled it back to say, “This is the tenth time you've done this, Nii-chan."

“Rude!” Shisui protested, using the shaft of the naginata to haul himself to his feet. It was so deeply buried in the wall he couldn't even budge it, but he was not going to think about that. “Imouto, I need your help as your favorite brother and you're just going to fling sharp stuff at me?”

“Sasuke isn’t here right now, and he is absolutely my favorite,” Naomi told the mattress. “Try again.” When Shisui flailed at her in deeply offended protest, though, she groaned and added, “What, Nii-chan ?”

“There's a girl!” Shisui repeated magnanimously, because it’s conceivable they missed it the first time.

“Yes, Nii-chan. There are a lot of girls in Konoha. If you're only just now noticing, I'm going to get Itachi to send you back to the Academy.”

“Naomi !” It was not a distressed wail, because Shisui was definitely too classy for that. Except he was not, and it kind of was. “This is serious!”

Naomi turned her head to look at him, eyes sliding open, and the deadly, spinning red and black of her Mangekyo was a wordless threat all on its own, even without the expression on her face. “And I'm seriously going to injure you if you don’t get to the point.”

Shisui almost called her rude again, except he finally had Naomi's full attention (even if it looked more like she’s sizing Shisui up for a grave) and he was not about to waste it. “There was a girl just coming in, Konoha hitai-ate, and she was gorgeous and sweet and now I can't find her. Please help me, I’ll owe you for a year .”

There was a long, disgusted groan, but Naomi flaps a hand at him, and Shisui knew her well enough to recognize a signal to continue with more information. “Uh, probably twenty or something? Brunette, two side bangs, brown eyes that are so pretty, Naomi , you would not believe—”

Itachi made a quiet sound of amusement. “Green kimono, brown stash and senbon in hair?” he asked.

Every inch of Shisui's body came alert. “You know her?”

One brow raised, and Itachi leaned back against the headboard. Shisui was very much not looking at the very visible hickey on his collarbone. " I know him. That was Yuki Haku. He just got back from a diplomatic mission from Kiri.” There was a vaguely wary expression on his face as he stared at Shisui like he was waiting for a reaction.

“Boy?” Shisui asked, baffled.

Naomi snorted. “Yes.”

“Where can I find him?” Shisui bursted out, not able to contain it anymore.

Itachi and Naomi traded a long look that might as well be a full conversation, which would never not be mildly creepy. Finally, Naomi rolled her eye, then sat up and slid into Itachi's’s lap like Shisui's presence has entirely ceased to matter. “Probably with Zabuza.” she said dismissively, and Itachi hummed in agreement.

“It would be better to visit at a more appropriate hour.” she added helpfully, and then deliberately moved to remove the sheet she had draped over herself.

Shisui yelped and flung himself headlong back out the window.

Zabuza gave him a long look when he skulked out of the trees around the time their training session was winding down, one that said he knew exactly how long he’d been sitting in the big oak watching them like a creeper. Shisui gave him a sheepish smile, and the demon of the mist narrowed his eyes in a way that might prove dangerous for Shisui.

He gave him a long, warning look before turning towards Haku. “That's all for the day, Haku. You have a visitor."

Haku blinked, then turned, and brown eyes landed on Shisui and widened a little. “Hello.” he said with a smile. “You got off gate duty.”

That face . Shisui could probably die happy having seen it again, though he would die much happier if he got to keep seeing it. Preferably with lots of variations. Including some R-rated versions, hopefully. Shisui was definitely a fan of that idea.

“I did,” he agreed, smiling back, when he finally managed to get his tongue to work again. “Punishments can't last forever, no matter what Itachi thinks. I have a few hours before my next shift if you want to get some lunch with me?”

That wasn’t supposed to be a question, damn it. Shisui could be smooth, he could be the smoothest , this is not fair.

Haku blinked and looked at Shisui like he was waiting for the punchline. “I—you know that I'm a boy, right?” he asked a little tentatively.

A boy who Shisui wanted to undress with his teeth , but that’s probably creepy to say on their second meeting. “I—yes?” he asked, a little confused why this mattered.

But apparently it does matter , because there was a hopeful sort of light sliding into Haku's features, and gods, if Shisui thought he was gorgeous before, it was nothing compared to now. There was even a faint flush rising in his cheeks, highlighting a dusting of freckles. “We could get sashimi?” he suggested , and Shisui wanted to wrap himself in that smile and live in it. Preferably for the rest of his natural life.

“Yes,” Shisui said, way too eager but unable to care. He was just glad he didn’t spontaneously break out in a happy dance the way he was currently doing internally. “Oh my God, yes, thank you, this is awesome.” He beamed at Haku, who looked a little like someone just knocked him over the head with something heavy, but after a second he smileed, bright and warm, and all right, maybe it was a little premature but Shisui was going to marry him just so he could see that smile every day from now on.

“It’s perfect,” Haku agreed, bending over to pick up his weapons pouch and then straightening. He also, very unfairly, has an amazing ass. It was official, Shisui had died and gone to heaven.

Shisui was done. Gone. That was it for him, he was toast.

He barely waited for Haku to collect his water before he was swinging an arm around his shoulders, pulling that lean, glorious body right up against his own. Haku smiled at him, leaned into the touch like they’ve been doing this for years already.

Shisui was going to die , and it would be the best death ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired (or shamelessly copied) from blackkat's one shot -- I'm falling for your eyes (but they don't know me yet)


	46. Redefining Shinobi

Hiruzen watched as Naruto was declared the Rokudaime Hokage and the first elected Hokage of Konoha. 

It was a new system that his successor had introduced to Konoha. According to this system, the Hokage would not have a life time seat, but only for 20 years at a time, following which an election would take place for the new Hokage.

This was one of the many changes that the Uchiha had brought to Konoha. 

The introduction of ninshu was one of them. Apparently, it was a teaching of Rikodo Sennin, according to which chakra should be used for creation, not destruction. The academy now also offers classes for civilians to learn basic fuinjutsu for storage scrolls, or earth jutsu for construction, etc.

Konoha had changed so much in the last 20 years with the expansion, foreign exchange Shinobi, new technology, construction of the train, removal of sticks from Hyuuga asses; that Hiruzen wouldn't be able to recognize it at all, if it hadn't been for the Hokage mountain. 

The other Shinobi villages were also not spared from the change. Who would have thought that Iwa and Konoha could ever perform joint missions. Everyone attributed the new peaceful era to Itachi, but Hiruzen knew better. 

Itachi was like Minato, unparalleled genius but not very imaginative. The inspiration behind Itachi's work had been none other than Naomi Uchiha, who had been an unassuming chunnin before retiring from Ninja career. 

Hiruzen had first heard of her when Itachi had told him that the Uchiha coup had been avoided due to her actions. He had decided to do something nice for her, for taking care of that headache. When he'd heard that she was interested in fuinjutsu, he had ordered Jiraiya to take her as an apprentice. Never would have he thought that his actions would lead to these consequences. Because, the Toad Sage's prophecy turned out to be true after all. An orphan with a smile resembling the sun became Jiraiya's student and brought peace to the Elemental Nations. 

Not that Itachi wasn't instrumental in this. He was a worthy successor. Even if he insisted on tearing down everything Hiruzen had built in his life. He was almost relieved that he has finally stepped down as Hokage, before doing something ridiculous like tearing down the Hokage mountain or banning Icha Icha. 

Those were the last thougts of Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime, God of Shinobi before he passed on with a smile on his face, at 88 years of age.


	47. Together In Death

Naomi watched in disbelief as the chunnin exams arena was destroyed by Momoshiki and Kinshiki Otsutsuki, while effortlessly fighting all five kages and Sasuke. Never even in her darkest dreams she had imagined that her actions could lead to this predicament. It was foolish of her to assume that the threats faced by Konoha would be limited to the ones she had seen in the Anime, moreover when she had never bothered to watch the sequels.

The actions taken by her and Itachi were instrumental in avoiding the Fourth Shinobi War. They were also responsible for stunting the growth of many ninjas. Shinobi flourish and grow in war, after all. Sasuke didn't have the Mangekyou let alone the EMS or Rinnegan. Naruto didn't have the Six Paths Mode. It was the same with the other kages. They were barely keeping up with the Otsutsukis.

They weren't even familiar with their powers due to absence of any encounter with Kaguya. This was further hindering them. Soon they would be overpowered and (as they had been helpfully informed during his monologue) Momoshiki would suck the chakra of the planet dry starting from the Kyuubi.

How could she have been so stupid? She never paused to think of the reason for Kaguya to amass a Zetsu army.

There was no use wallowing now. She had to find a way to stop those two, at any cost.

...... At any cost. Shiki fuin. Nothing else would be powerful enough to stop them.

The cost of sealing them would be her own soul. She accepted that. But there were two of them. And the only person capable of using Shiki fuin aside from her, in Konoha, was her husband.

As if reaching the same conclusion, Itachi's eyes found hers from across the battlefield. They were determined. No words were needed between them. There was no stopping him from this. 

Naomi sighed. '... In life and death' those were the words spoken at her wedding. It seems this was the time to fulfill them.

Like a well oiled machine, Itachi and her entered the battlefield, seamlessly joining their allies. Their support helped their side push back a little and catch their breaths. Itachi subtly told them to put the Otsutsukis in specific positions. They had no reason to doubt his word. Itachi was a previous Hokage and well respected among them. Sasuke had a suspicious glint in his eye, though.

Naomi forcefully pushed back the thought of how this would affect Sasuke. There was no other way.

Soon enough Itachi and her were back to back with Momoshiki and Kinshiki in front of them respectively. Momoshiki was saying something but instead of listening to his monologue she focused on her last moments alive with Itachi.

"Shiki Fuin." She shouted together with Itachi, catching the Otsutsukis off gaurd.

Then all she knew was pain. She knew the jutsu worked because the only thing capable of causing such pain would be the Shinigami ripping her soul from her body. She was dimly aware of Itachi's hand holding hers as she fell.

No regrets. Those were her thoughts before she lost herself to the abyss


End file.
